On Tuesday “Giving Day,” we reflect on what it means as a small business to do good.
Two years ago, we fell in love with the children pictured here, up in the mountainous region of Yanamayo in Peru. As they waited in line for their medical check-ups, provided by Sacred Valley Health, we were struck by an odd feeling. Something was off. Where was the rambunctious group of kids we were expecting? Why weren't they taking every chance to photobomb our shots with their tongues sticking out? Instead, they just sat quietly in the fields waiting their turn.
We asked the Quechuan interpreters to share their story. After an early morning working the fields, these children walked several hours to attend school. They skipped lunch. They will hike back home and do more farmwork before bed. Upon hearing this, we all wished we had brought more food, but donated the lunches we had. It is a miracle how these kids' faces brightened up once their bellies were full.
We reflect on the lives of these children, who depend on subsistence farming and migrate with their llamas each season to survive. Communities like these, connected so closely to the land, are most sensitive to climate change, and suffer the hardest. While we get annoyed when visiting the grocery store by how much almonds cost, they are the true sentinels for the impact changing temperatures and rainfall amounts are having. We feel the responsibility to do what we can, with what we have, to ensure a sustainable future for these, the most vulnerable and least carbon-culpable of communities.
With the Paris Climate Change Summit in session, we, as a small business, advocate for meaningful promises and actions to eliminate greenhouse emissions. We ask you to make your voices heard too. One way, is to sign this petition for a clean world and tell your congressperson this matters. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/100_clean_yt/
Schoolchildren in Yanamayo, Peru © Bowerbird Photography 2015
xoxo,
Ariel + Sam
