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]]>Humanitarian Aid & Development communities, highlight the importance of humanitarian issues and addressing them in a way that would help in building a better future for all. The 17th edition was scheduled on the 15th to 17th March 2021 under the theme “Aid and Coronavirus, a focus on Africa”. This DIHAD Conference could not be more timely. We live in extraordinary times with huge numbers of people affected by conflicts and disasters. Humanitarian crises are more complex and last longer than ever before. DIHAD Conference 2021 will review the humanitarian and relief efforts in the continent where all aspects of Aid and Development are concentrated. The speech of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan also included: “The importance of this edition of DIHAD from the fact that it discusses a fundamental issue related to strengthening the capacity of the African arena to confront the Corona pandemic, and to help it recover and overcome its humanitarian and development crises in various fields.
The Sao foundation is proud to have been a part of DIHAD 2021, being a crucial platform for International Humanitarian Aid and Development. Due to these uncertain times, we could not physically attend the event but this did not take from the power the event wields in this field. We look forward to working with many of the trustees and organisations in the near future. Our imminent focus is the future of Africa post COVID-19 in which we hold close to our hearts.
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]]>In our world today, as conscious beings who care about our environment, we question ourselves time and time again, what can I do for making choices that help to protect our precious planet?
With fast fashion so easily available we create a huge amount of unnecessary pollution, but without compromising on the fun part of dressing up and expressing yourself, one still can make choices that reduces your carbon footprint!
Not only your everyday clothing but your festival outfits can also be sustainable and still be the most stylish. Even more so, as wearing unique pieces it can become like treasure hunting for something unique.
Pick items that you would like to wear many times, if you know you will only wear it once and it ends up in the garbage, don’t buy it.
Wear natural fabrics, it is better for you anyway. Did you know your skin absorbs toxins from clothing dyes for example? Did you know that a big percentage of the plastic pollution in our oceans come from synthetic fabrics..
So reduce plastic and fast fashion as much as possible.
Upcycle, recycle, buy second hand and vintage, get your old clothes altered and make them more funky.
Get creative with your clothing you already own, mix and match in ways you haven’t before. Swop with your friends.
Buy from small businesses that support communities, get custom made outfits that really suits your personality.
Accessorise! Accessorise accessorise! It is probably the best way to give new life to an outfit you already have worn.
Our mission at OBAAT to raise awareness on sustainability, give back to communities and support a grater cause while preserving the heritage of handcrafted beaded work. It is beautiful to know who made the piece you are wearing and that the money you are spending on clothing also goes directly to the people who made them.
The big high street brands most of the times use cheap labour in a developing country where the workers don’t have the right circumstances to work, neither the payment they need for a decent living…
By buying from small companies you not only support their communities but eventually forcing out a change in the fashion industry.. And for our planet! One step at a time..
Travelling to a festival , most of the times you will be visiting a far destination, so first of all , check the weather!
Is it sunny and tropical? Or it might rain?
Your must have pieces include: bodysuits, bikinis, shorts and skirts and kimonos that you can easily dress up with different accessories. Flowing dresses, long skirts and cover-ups are a must.
You have to make sure you have the right shoes to dance the night away, sneakers or boots are the anytime go-to, and a small bag or a cosy backpack to fit your necessities. For the rainy days get yourself a funky raincoat and don’t forget to pack a scarf, it always comes handy.
Pro tip: have your own water bottle and your own cup so you can reduce single plastic use whenever it is possible.
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]]>The post 10 plastic free alternatives appeared first on OBAAT.
]]>The aim of this article is have you rethink your spending habits when it comes to plastic. We will guide you through 10 Plastic-free alternatives that everyone should be switching to in 2020. And hopefully, get you making greener choice.
“Save Some Green Bamboo Toothbrushes” are made from 100% Genuine Panda friendly Bamboo. Even more importantly, the bamboo from which the brushes are harvested are free from fertilisers or pesticides. Simply put, Moso bamboo is naturally sustainable and one of the greatest eco materials ever! Unlike other bamboo toothbrushes, all the bristles are BPA Free biodegradable. Save Some Green is the first eco-friendly toothbrush company to infuse bristles with bamboo orBamboo charcoal to help make your brushing experience even better.
A big one is replacing cling film with household linen to wrap food. Bee Green Wraps area great alternative to Cling Film. They are 100% natural and reusable. Bee GreenWraps are versatile, mouldable, strong and water resistant, but best of all they are reusable! Bee Green Wraps are doing their bit to create a plastic-free environment. After all, there is no need for plastic lunch boxes or cling film covered food. These wraps will keep your food fresh. And best of all, you can reuse their wraps for up to a year and compost when finished.
Lush are famed for their commitment to eco-friendly choices and the environment.They offer a wide selection of soaps and shower bombs, all of which come in a beautifully branded Lush paper bag.
Instead of buying vegetables at the supermarket switch to a seasonal veg box. Abel& Cole veg boxes can be purchased for as little as £12.50 per week. All Abel & Cole’sBritish Veg Boxes includes six varieties of home-grown organic veg from growers up and down the country. They plan the contents of this box with what grows in Britain throughout the year, which means you eat seasonally. Veg boxes arrive weekly so you have fresh food and a variety of flavours. Weekly boxes help Abel & Cole’s farmers plan and prevent waste too. And if you wish to adjust the frequency of your deliveries, it’s easily done!
Tea Pigs’ mission is to get the nation drinking real tea again. The founders believe that there’s a whole world of quality teas out there that simply aren’t getting the attention they deserve. And so, Tea Pigs aims to solve this. Gone are the days of forgetting to top up your teabags because Tea pigs offers a subscribe and save delivery service straight to your front door.
Opt out of buying coffee cups and instead have a reusable one handy for that essential morning coffee run. In the UK we use 7 million disposable coffee cups every day – that’s 2.5 billion every year. Cups are technically recyclable; however, due to the complex way they are produced, the vast majority of coffee cups are not recycled. Although coffee cups are made largely of paper, they are lined with plastic polyethylene, which makes the cup waterproof and therefore able to contain liquid. Also, the difficulty of recycling coffee cups is increased by the fact they are contaminated with drink. This means cups cannot be recycled at standard recycling plants, and must instead be taken to special facilities – only three of which exist in the UK. In reality, the amount of coffee cups that end up being recycled is less than 1 per cent.
Go old school and swap your disposable plastic razor for a stainless steel razor with recycable aluminum blades. A 3-piece double-edged safety razor will give a close smooth shave for years without the user suffering from razor burn or ingrown hairs.
Swap your plastic Tupperware for a stainless steel bento box. Be the envy of all your work colleagues and invest in a lunchbox that will last a lifetime!
Plastic straws are a menace on the world. It’s time we change our purchasing habits and opt for greener choices, especially when it comes to pesky straws! Bamboo straws are fun, functional and Earth friendly. These bamboo straws are completely biodegradable and do not pollute. Made of organic and natural materials they are the best eco-friendly alternative to plastic, steel or glass straws.
The last of 10 Plastic-free alternatives concerns shopping bags! Replace pesky plastic bags for reusable shopping bags. Reusable shopping bags can add a really personal touch to your overall look and can be bought from any store ranging from Waterstones to Aldi. Just make sure you’ve always got one handy at the bottom of your purse or rucksack.
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]]>The post Festivals and fashion appeared first on OBAAT.
]]>In today’s world sustainability and protecting nature has to come to our immediate attention. Thankfully there are some events that helps to promote some solutions while having a good time! Some others have some serious catching up to do, there are many things you can also change personally.
Here’s a list some of the top music festivals you can find around the globe some of them with close focus on sustainability.
SXMFestival
Where? St Martin
When? 11-15th March
SXM Festival is a boutique electronic music festival on the island of Saint-Martin in the Caribbean. Heading into its fourth year, the festival boasts one of the most scenic sites in the world.
To go along with its stunning setting SXM annually curates a forward-leaning lineup of underground house and techno acts that each play a three house set.
With a focus on bespoke eco-centric set design, the festival features stages on the beach, on boats, in villas and in clubs for an utterly unique experience.
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Where: Indio, California
When: the event takes place two following weekends, 10-19th April
Founded: 1999
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival turned 20 in 2019. Due to its location, it’s easily one of the most well-attended festivals by Hollywood types and other celebrities. It has consistently sold out since 2004, lately in the first hours of tickets going online. It’s also consistently been named the best outdoor music festival in North America. The fest has been able to grab huge names from a wide range of musical genres over the years, including headliners like Prince, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney. It also includes dozens of up-and-coming bands every year during its two whole weekends of entertainment.
Over the past two decades Coachella has become one of the most renowned cultural events in the world and, thanks to its audience of celebrities and social media stars, evolved into a marketing megaphone for brands wanting to tap into its global reach.
What to wear?
Coachella is a festival vacation paradise and your clothing should match those weekend vibes. Whip out those weekend shorts with trippy and vibrant designs. Save those solid colours for Monday, Coachella is a place for expression.
Unfortunately the single use plastic at the event is not exactly environment friendly and they do not allow bringing your own bottle with you.
Glastonbury
Where: Pilton, Somerset, Great Britain
When: June 26-30, 2019
Glastonbury is a five-day event that’s regarded as one of the UK’s most important cultural events. The festival is not annual on account of “fallow years,” with the break varying depending on the condition of the farmland.
The upside: This helps the ground and the town recover from the sudden influx of tourists.
Artists who have taken to the stage include David Bowie, the Arctic Monkeys and Adele.
Amongst many others supermodel Kate Moss has been a Glastonbury regular, bringing festival fashion to public obsession.
Must have pieces: your wellies and your mac!
Garbicz Festival
Welcome to fairyland! Garbicz is an underground festival in Poland, held beginning of August. You dance to the best underground house and techno beats in the middle of the forest where all different type of trees creates a magical vibe. To cool down you dip in the crystal clear lake formed by the Polish glacier.
Sustainability and protecting nature is a forefront goal of the organisers. No plastic is used on the site, you have to bring your own cutlery and plates and as the lake is a protected area no cosmetics are allowed in the lake. There are no single use plastic bottles, instead fill up your water bottle from the water fountains.
There is no VIP or backstage! Everyone sleeps in a tent, you rarely see people taking photos, which is refreshing in todays social media obsession.
Burning Man
Where? Nevada, USA
When? August 30- September 7th
Burning man is not a festival. It is an annually held event, a temporary city in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
It is an experiment in community and art, influenced by ten main principles radical inclusion, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, gifting, decommodification, participation, immediacy, and leave no trace.
Recycle, bring your own cup, don’t bring small water bottles and other small plastic to the playa, don’t use glitter amongst some of the rules as a burner you need to follow, as the desert is a protected area.
First held 33 years ago in 1986 organised by Larry Harvey and Jerry James.
Participation is a key precept for the community; selfless giving of one’s unique talents for the enjoyment of all is encouraged. Examples of creativity include experimental and interactive sculptures, buildings, performances and art cars, among other media. These contributions are inspired by a theme that is chosen annually by the organisers.
The organisation provides the essential infrastructure of Black Rock City, and works year-round to bring Burning Man culture to the world and to support its global participant community in manifesting its Ten Principles through six interconnected and aspirational program areas: Arts, Civic Involvement, Culture, Education, Philosophical Center, and Social Enterprise.
Burning Man is a place for self expression, art, music, lots of dust and even more magic.
Burning Man has inspired communities worldwide to create their own “burn” and their own festivals, for example Africa Burn in South Africa and Midburn in Israel.
Ondalinda
“Ondalinda is a beautiful wave of awesome humans gathering around the world to celebrate music, art and culture”
It takes place in the magical Costa Careyes in Mexico in early November.
Costa Careyes is a small community surrounded by thousands of acres of nature reserve, a private property founded by Gian Franco Brignone in 1968, it is continuously family owned and operated unique private beach resort.
Ondalinda was created in the belief that we’re better off together than alone. The wave effect we seek to generate every year – be it a ‘human wave’ or a Pacific swell breaking on the shore – embodies the following idea, too. Specifically: even a human collective reaches its zenith at some point and when it does – when it can go no further – we’re wise to look beyond ourselves and beyond our kind…and to seek out the laws of Nature for the guidance we require. It’s no coincidence that the Ondalinda experiences are held in some of the most beautiful places on the planet.
It is a small exclusive festival focusing in transcendence and the importance of art, in community, heritage, sustainability, ritualism and connectivity.
Art with me Tulum
Art with me is an international arts, music and cultural festival curated to inspire us to be more connected to ourselves and build awareness about the environmental issues that affect us locally and globally. It is a community-driven festival that curates art, talks, music, wellness and cultural experiences as a platform to inspire change and foster awareness amongst attendees.
The festival weaves together an eclectic mix of experiences imagined by world-renowned artists, live and electronic music acts, speakers, yoga teachers, mindfulness leaders, and top chefs using art as a lens to examine our impact on the world around us.
The festival is working together with an organisation called “care with me” which aims to give back to the community and preserving Tulum’s environment.
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]]>In many parts of Africa, female empowerment is still a notion that is not fully addressed and so that is why we make it a main point of OBAAT’s mission. For far too long, women and girls in Africa have faced discrimination and inequalities in the work force which have not only hurt them, but their families, communities and their countries as a whole. By helping women become financial independent and providing them with health benefits and fixed salaries, we are helping their communities become stronger and give them a feeling of safety.
The Female UN provides the following facts on this important topic:
Nana Sao has a vision that is aligned with empowering females and those in impoverished communities.When we began our project, we connected with a Beader called Sthe from Durban, South Africa. She told us about how beading has been a part of her family tradition and how she uses it to empower other women to be independent using their handmade work. We choose to highlight her and her beading collective by flying to Durban and shooting a documentary and meeting the ladies. Sthe told us she gained celebrity status within her community and we changed her life forever. We are here to create these moments! Watch our interview with Sthe and her Beaders.
Our company has evolved, we have since built a small factory in Johannesburg to create a safe working environment for the women we have hired and given fixed salaries and health benefits.
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]]>Through this OBAAT was born under the Oriaikhi-Sao Foundation. The Foundation’s focus is to empower youth to become self-sufficient by providing financial support to access quality education, funding the provision of world class healthcare and health services and supporting the development of art and young artists through the funding of art projects and providing materials for the creation of artistic media.
Not only does Nana Sao help those in need through his foundation, he also is a big part of the art community where he sits on the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair board. Drawing reference to the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, 1-54 is a sustainable and dynamic platform that is engaged in contemporary dialogue and exchange.
Our team includes the following dedicated volunteers:
Botsang Ramorwa – South Africa Production Manager
Susy Castro – Operations Manager
Anna Kiss – Productions Assistant
Dayana Pinaeva – Designer Assistant
We started with our female range that is designed and produced in our factory in Johannesburg. We later developed a male range that is designed by upcoming female jewelry designers in London using Ghanaian beads and recycled materials using innovative techniques. These London based designers will travel to South Africa to teach our local Beaders these new techniques; we’re all about females helping one another!
Stay tuned on our blog and social media to see our progress and updates!
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