Christmas Special: Our car is gone, and we need your help!

Ok, that was some clickbaity, I apologise. But it’s all true!

I’ll now tell you how our shiny automotive friend has found a new home- and how we need your help to keep it there. 

We came across Jhai Coffee House a couple of weeks ago. Jocelyn (our Southern Laos travel companion) knows a person who works with the Jhai crew, and recommended we swing by. Jhai has a lovely little coffee shop/house on the main road in Paksong, a dusty town situated atop the Bolaven Plateau in Southern Laos. The Bolaven Plateau is a magical, waterfall-filled super-high chunk o’land that is blissfully cool (cold, even!) and grows FABULOUS coffee.

People, I drank the coffee. I drank it. This is a very big deal.

Anyway, we got to talking with Tyson, an American who runs the place alongside two Lao guys, Wok and Jackie. Turns out the work they do is amazing. I’ll let you watch the two videos below for more info. 

But, basically, it turns out the coffee farmers in the area were getting royally screwed out of money from coffee buyers, and weren’t making the most out of their growing and harvesting processes, either. Also, there were some pretty big basic hygiene issues with the kids, including lack of access to clean water. But, with the nascent coffee farmer cooperative already in place, and kids already attending school pretty regularly, the Jhai team have been able to help the community make INCREDIBLE changes. They teach the farmers about how to grow even better coffee- and how to sell it for a fair price. The Coffee House, a meeting place for the Cooperative, is a sustainable business, and its profits support hygiene and water access programs in the region’s schools.

In my career, I’ve done a lot of nerding out about good practice in social change orgs. I can tell you, Jhai are really working on best practice, here. It’s fabulous. Enquire within for social change jargon and overexcited babbling. 

So, here’s the deal. We gave them our car. (They only had one cool but scary antique rust bucket for the whole org, and it’s already caught fire once.) But, to register the car in Laos, so they aren’t being illegal and what not, costs $2,000. We’re chucking in what we can, and we’re asking for your help with the rest. 

Anything you give is tax deductible – Jhai has an American registered 501c3! The PayPal link is secure and safe. We’ve used it ourselves. If you don’t have a paypal account, at the bottom of the screen there is a pay by credit card link that you can click and just enter your details. 

So, to donate, go to www.jhaicoffeehouse.com and click DONATE in the upper right corner. It’ll say you are donating to Live GLOCAL Foundation – that’s the one!

Most of us drink coffee every day (OK, not me…) but rarely give a thought to the families and children who produce it. We see this as our chance to give back.

And hey, we only need $2,000 for the car (ONLY) but the more Jhai gets, the more schools can access clean water – a water well is only $2,000 as well. So feel free to just chuck all your extra money at them, no worries. 🙂 

To those of you who have already donated, THANK YOU. You are making a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of coffee families in the Bolaven Plateau, and to even more school children who will have access to clean water and hygiene. THANK YOU!! 

We’ve got two videos for you – An intro with all of us (hear Felice sound silly on camera!), and one with more info about Jhai (which I snazzily edited all by myself!!). We hope you enjoy!

P.S. – We will be giving you an actual blog post very, very shortly. (It’s already written!). We love you all!