A catastrophe hit my friends over in the Philippines when a tropical storm named Ketsana dumped a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours, making it the worst storm to hit that country in 40 years. Eighty percent of Manila was under water over the weekend and most everyone I spoke with had at least one floor of their home completely flooded. Fortunately, no one I know has died or been injured – but the death count over there is up to about 250 and I’m sure it will rise.

Manila under water - BBC News

My staff here is as concerned as I am, and yesterday we realized that, at times like these, the work we’re doing becomes incredibly important. I assured our Manila-based broker Malu by phone that we’d still be making our bags over there. “This may not help today,” I told her, “but just tell everyone that there’ll be plenty of work in the future – and that means you’ll all have income, so you’ll be able to rebuild.”

This is why it’s so important to be human-friendly as well as eco-friendly, and by that I mean maintaining fair labor practices, where the people who are making your bags or other products take home good pay. Yes, as a result our bags cost more than the ones made in China, India or elsewhere by people earning slave wages. But our fair labor practices mean that the people hit so hard by this calamity will slowly be able to resurrect their homes, send their children to school and see the doctor if they need to – and given how bad the flooding situation is in the Philippines, disease is going to be rampant.

Malu kept thanking me and our new office manager Alexis Lyman for our concern and for our continued business. She also thanked us for the American aid being sent over there, which was really quite sweet of her, and Malu’s gratitude is something I wanted to pass along to you.

If you’d like to help out by making a donation to help the people hit so hard by Tropical Storm Ketsana, AmeriCares is sending relief over there as we speak. If you’d like to wire money directly to the Philippines, the Philippine consulate in Hawaii has a list of local organizations who are accepting funds on behalf of the victims. I know Malu and her countrymen and women would truly appreciate it.

XOXO Marty