A Weekend at Ethical Just Got Fabulous!

Last weekend saw the Midomo Bracelet team mixing ethics and fashion on Portobello Road

When we first heard about the Ethical Just Got Fabulous Christmas fair, we knew we’d stumbled on something special. The organisers, Naomi, Leona and Kate, are dedicated to ‘supporting the good work of those who strive to be both fashionable and ethical in their production,’ which struck a chord with us given the underlying message behind our Midomo Bracelet campaign: ‘you don’t have to change your life to change someone elses’.

‘Ethical Just Got Fabulous’ presented the perfect platform for us to promote a bracelet that on the one hand is a beautiful, exclusive, designer piece, and on the other provides a family in Africa with safe, clean drinking water for a year.

We arrived at the 20th Century Theatre, just off Portobello Road, to find a handsome old room decorated with upcycled chandeliers. There were so many inspiring companies including Josyflo for belts and accessories, Juzi and Delight Rubellery for jewellery, and Paperself for the most amazing cut-paper eyelashes! Moreover, each company shared the conviction that an ethical product should not have to compromise itself on style.

Over the weekend, Amanda and I ran a raffle, where shoppers could buy tickets for the chance to win a Midomo Bracelet. Demand was high, but there could only be one winner, and yesterday we announced that this lucky person was ….. ..Gwen Rahardja!

We wish Gwen all the best with wearing her bracelet and do hope she shows off its ethical fabulousness to everyone she knows!! At the same time, we would like to thank everyone who bought a ticket, together your support and interest has funded the production and shipping of a Midomo water purifier to an African community, where it will provide potentially life-saving benefit.

We came away from Ethical Just Got Fabulous with an optimistic view of how not just fashion, but the consumer market in general, is changing. There is a demand for products that deliver on style, function and ethics, and this surely means that supply must follow suit.

Global Entrepreneurship Week: A new website and a very busy week…

We launched the Midomo Bracelet microsite a week last Sunday, just in time for the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

On the Monday of GEW, during a 'Good Deals' panel debate, ex-Dragon and exemplary entrepreneur Doug Richard called a commercial break. In this interlude, to our delight, he presented Julie Devonshire of One Water with a Midomo Bracelet. He then called on others to visit our website and buy one too!

The following days were a flurry of networking, speaking (Amanda), pitching, selling and generally 'seeing and being seen'. Then on Saturday, when we were attempting a recovery, the bracelet was featured in the Financial Times ‘How to Spend it’ Christmas Supplement! The excitement continues…

So you should probably check out our new website… www.midomobracelet.org

Red Button Design Do Parliament..

On 3rd November Red Button Design had the great honour of attending the World Preservation Foundation conference at Westminster. That we had been invited to this event was exciting enough, but what really delighted us was the fact that this was also the first trip out for Midomo, in the UK.

As I wheeled Midomo towards Storey’s Gate it raised a few eyebrows..



But once settled at our exhibition stand it magnetically drew people towards us to sheepishly ask what it did. When we told them that this simple looking piece of equipment could provide safe, clean water to communities in the developing world- without dependence on infrastructure or energy resources- everybody was suitably impressed; we need to order some more business cards!

We also took along some Midomo Bracelets in order to show people how they could personally donate a Midomo, and at the same time obtain a luxury designer piece of jewellery. Many fashionable and philanthropic sorts duly added us to their Christmas lists and one lovely man even bought one for his wife!

As well as showing off our wares we also had an enjoyable and informative time. The speakers delivered quite alarming facts about climate change, and then offered some potential solutions, eloquently. We then tucked into a vegan lunch that was good enough to satisfy and inspire even dedicated omnivores.

Midomo’s emancipation into society was certainly respectable. And if they’ll have us, we’d love to roll by Parliament again some time…

Blog Action Day 2010: The Worth Of Water.

There is a saying that states, ‘We never know the worth of water ‘til the well is dry,’ and isn’t it true?

I think for many of us, the particular pressures of modern Western life; excelling in work assignments, arranging fun times with friends, or even deciding which dress is the most stylish, leave us overlooking the marvel that is this clear liquid that descends from the tap when I turn it, and into my glass.

However, what if that seemingly infinite supply of clean water should suddenly become inaccessible to me? I probably wouldn’t care so much about my outfit. I certainly wouldn’t be able to concentrate on work. It’s most likely I would be too unwell to go out with my friends. It is an often-heard cheerful truism that ‘water is the building block of life;’ but without it, we cannot aspire to much more than basic survival.

This is the reality for almost 1 billion people in the world. More people die from drinking contaminated water than from all forms of violence and war. 1.5 million children die every year from water-related diseases; a higher death toll than that from AIDS, measles and malaria combined. In Africa, women and children spend up to 10 hours per day collecting water, meaning that -even if they manage to remain healthy- education, play, work and self fulfilment are all but out of the question.

Blog Action Day is about drawing attention to these facts. Hopefully, the sheer number of both high-profile and relatively unknown blogs inspired by blogactionday.change.org will raise awareness of a global, and preventable, problem. Most importantly, it might inspire people to action.

Of course, the aims of Blog Action Day also run parallel with the purpose of Red Button Design. The founding statements of the company were to design, produce and supply products for the humanitarian market, products that address the problems faced by the Developing World outlined in the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

Red Button prioritised our water solution ‘Midomo’ as we recognized the basic fact that without water to drink, the remaining MDGs; even shelter, sanitation, education and gender equality, all become secondary.

We are not martyrs. Red Button Design is not a charity, but a social enterprise that seeks to make a fair market profit in direct correlation to the benefit we can provide. For us, humanitarian goals, financial aspirations, and the proven utility of our products are all inextricably linked. After all, if we are not profitable our ability to effect sustained and meaningful change is severely capped.

Our ‘Midomo Bracelet’ Christmas campaign - a limited edition piece of jewellery by Alex Monroe that covers the cost of sending a Midomo to Africa- embodies this position. We are not about self-denial or guilt, but believe that modern and considered business models can mean that you ‘don’t have to change your life to change someone else’s’.

For me, the point is not that I shouldn’t worry over where the best night out is, the minutia of my grammar in an essay, or even the height of a heel on my shoe. However, I should absolutely remember that I am in a privileged position where I can take the basics of survival for granted, and that I have a duty to others who are not.

For that reason, my ‘blogger action’ shall be to ask for a Midomo Bracelet for Christmas. It will celebrate the fact that I have aspirations, give credence to an emerging, ‘win win’ model of enterprise and, by giving the most basic gift of safe, clean water to another person, it will enable that person to have aspirations too.

Sophie Orbaum,
Red Button Design,
U.K

Red Button Design's Midomo Bracelet - Social Vision 2010

Red Button Design's newest venture The Midomo Bracelet needs 2 mins of your time!

Please Click Here to submit your email voting for us in the following competition..

Triodos Bank, the Social Enterprise Coalition and the regional social enterprise networks of England are working together to run Social Vision 2010: business at its best – the annual national social enterprise photography competition. (Our submission is the thumbnail above.)

The amazing prize on offer is:
• £750 cash
• an entry ticket for two people to Voice 11.
• a year's free associate membership to the Social Enterprise Coalition
• a year's free subscription to Social Enterprise magazine as well as £1000 worth of print advertising in Social Enterprise magazine

..all of which would be really important for us. But to get there, first we have to win the London heat. So please:

VOTE NOW!

The deadline for voting is 11:30am on Monday 11 October.

For some people, boldness is not a character trait but a function of need..

Someone once told me that, for some people, boldness is not a character trait but a function of need...

..I am one of those people.

I spent years wondering why everything I did only came together at the last moment; why vital assignments were always submitted minutes before a deadline, why I only found high paid consultancy work when I was down to my last £10, why supporters, funders, mentors only appeared in my life as I was giving up and not in the agonising months prior while I was searching high and low for help...

It’s incongruous to the way I’d like to view myself but the truth is
it takes an extraordinary amount of pressure to displace me from my comfort zone.

If I am under no pressure, why should I do the arduous / complex / scary things?
Only when the deadline is looming, big and scary on the horizon, does the fear of failure even begin to overcome the fear of the actions required to succeed. Then, and only then, will I do the things I ought to have done from the outset. The things I knew in my heart were right but was fearful of.

Excelling at a subject, pushing your boundaries, upselling yourself to make new connections requires moving out of what is comfortable. Not merely working harder or smarter but moving out of your emotional comfort zone. It requires courage (because it’s nerve wracking) it requires confidence (because it’s intimidating) it requires faith (or why would you even try?)

99% of the time I haven’t achieved my goals it has had nothing to do with my level of competence. It has everything to do with indulging hesitance and fear.

Maybe if I worried more about *that* and less about making a prat of myself, we'd have something other than a last-second-success?!

Esme: Midomo Charm Bracelet - Preview Party Round Up..

Press Release: Here
Pictures from the event.

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The evening was approaching... The clock had nearly struck half past six...The guests had been invited, the glasses were polished, the cakes looked heavenly, the bracelet was displayed to perfection and we were in our party dresses (James was in a shirt, his dress stayed at home for the night). But there was one rather large and irritating problem - the TFL tube types had decided to go on strike!

Why they obviously decided to sabotage our party I’m not sure, but in the end most of our lovely guests battled on despite the odds and managed to join us, if a little fashionably late! Red Button Design’s preview party for the Midomo Bracelet was a complete and utter success and I am sure I speak for the whole team when I say thank you to everyone who came along.

This was a special night for everyone at Red Button because it was really our first ever fully-fledged-wine-and-cakes-in-the-evening event, and even more importantly because it marked the launch of the Midomo Bracelet.

Teaming up with Alex Monroe, creator of the infamous bumblebee necklace (for those of a fashonista inclination) was really a honour. Alex has designed and handmade a delicate, beautiful charm bracelet, featuring various charms to represent our latest project. The wearer of each bracelet will not only be the proud owner of a bespoke and beautiful piece of jewellery but can also wear it with the knowledge that they have helped someone else along the way. For every one bracelet purchased, one Midomo will be donated to an NGO in a developing country. The owner can track the journey and arrival of the donated equipment via a unique serial code imprinted on their bracelet - just log on to our site, and see who is benefiting.

I think that is what I have cherished throughout this project - that you don’t have to be a martyr to help those in need. You can enjoy the jewellery you love and all at the same time, know that your decision to buy that charm bracelet rather than any other, is directly solving the old age problem of water shortage for one family. Small steps, but steps in the right direction.

Aside from the serious stuff.... We had a great crowd of people at the party. To name a few, we spotted fashion bloggers including Hannah from His&Hers Daily Styling and Saskia from Not Just Medical swapping notes, the crew from Pants to Poverty, Lauren from Cosmo, William from Green Element and Jan from Global Giving. There were all sorts of media moguls hovering about the sumptuous cakes and I hope everyone had a chance to talk about the project. Emma popped in from Alex Monroe’s team to say a few words about the collaboration too, I liked her sparkly shoes very much....

Amanda, in the style of her confident and lovely self, did a great introduction to the bracelet and gave everybody something to think about after we watched the promotional video which accompanies the bracelet. James was a whizz with the electronic stuff as per usual and dealt with all queries of a technical nature... i.e. that us girls know nothing about! Sophie, who (I am so sad to write this) has just finished her internship, was amazing and the party wouldn’t have happened without her.

I will not mention much about the aftermath - merely that it featured eating all the left over cakes, almost thinking the only Midomo Bracelet in the world was lost, then finding it, and several more drinks in the pub across the road... Well we did have something to be proud of, after all...