Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made It Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide

by Stacey Edgar

Start small, dream big, change lives— how one woman harnessed the power of fair trade to help women in poverty help themselves Seven years ago, Stacey Edgar had a $2,000 tax return and a deep desire to help provide economic security for women in need. She knew that of the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1 per day, seventy percent are women. What she didn’t have was a business plan. Or a passport. But that didn’t stop her from creating a socially conscious business that has helped poor women in five continents feed their families and send their children to school. Global Girlfriend has since grown into a multi-million dollar enterprise that specializes in handmade, fairly traded, ecoconscious apparel, accessories, and items made by women all over the world. Global Girlfriends is Stacey’s inspiring story of following her convictions, as well as her passionate argument for simple actions we can all take to eliminate extreme poverty. Stacey Edgar refused to be paralyzed by the size of world poverty; she started by taking several small steps, personal responsibility firmly in hand, and never looked back.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Inspirational, Memoir

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2011

About the author

Stacey Edgar is an award winning social entrepreneur, business consultant, author and teacher, who has worked with governments, artisan businesses, corporations, and global non-profit organizations to advance the artisan economy and create positive social and environmental impacts alongside communities. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business in the Social Responsibility and Sustainability division and is a co-founder and board member of Trade+Impact Association, a global trade association advancing women-led social enterprises in Africa and the Middle East.

Stacey is the author of Global Girlfriends, her story of growing and leading Global Girlfriend, a social enterprise she founded in 2003 with a $2,000 personal investment that grew into a multi-million dollar social enterprise partnering with over 250 women-led artisan enterprises in 35 countries for women’s economic justice. She has a PhD from Colorado State University and has authored scholarly works including journal articles as well as a book chapter in the Handbook on the Business of Sustainability on the intersection of entrepreneurship and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Reviews

[Christine Lussier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked the book up only b/c someone had shelved it as a display at our library, thus going against the "never judge a book by its cover". A bit slow at times--author tells of her travels to various countries while chosing which "merchants" to work with. Everything they sell must be made by women. Women make up 70% of those earning less than $1/day--1.3 billion people total.

The book clearly makes you want to support her efforts, as well as others in the fair trade market. It also made me wonder what exactly is being done in THIS country to help OUR families--men, women & children, who are the extreme poor.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author took a tax return of $2,000 and made a thriving business helping women in disadvantaged countries. She tells the stories of the women who make the items that she sells. It gives me a greater appreciation for all that I have.

[Constance Chevalier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. At the back of the book, she provides great websites for purchasing from various fair trade groups and lists how to get involved. Great source. Wish I'd read it 20 years ago.

[Jenn LeBow]

In a world that all too often tells us that selfishness is the only way to get ahead, stories of great love stand out. Today I'll be telling you about three of my recent favorite love stories: Then They Came For Me, by Maziar Bahari; A Good and Perfect Gift, by Amy Julia Becker; and Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide, by Stacey Edgar.

None of these books is a romance novel; in fact, one is a memoir with insight into international politics, another is a spiritual memoir focusing on parenting and a child with Down Syndrome, and the last is the story of a small business' inception and growth.

So why are they some of my favorite love stories?

Maziar Bahari, an Iranian Canadian, worked for Newsweek as the magazine's correspondent for Iran in 2009. He traveled to his country of origin in July to cover the presidential election between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. Bahari describes the mood in Iran as hopeful, electric. Despite his own family's turbulent history in Iranian political matters - Bahari's father and sister had been imprisoned by the shah in the '50's and Ayatollah Khomeini in the '80's, respectively - Bahari anticipated an unhindered professional visit for himself, and an unprecedented victory for the moderate Iranians as he watched crowds swell in support of Mousavi.

Instead, as Iranians watched in disbelief, Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. Within days, Bahari was arrested at his mother's home and taken to Evin Prison, notorious in Iran. For 118 days, officials imprisoned Bahari, interrogating him, beating him, accusing him of espionage and worse. Throughout his ordeal, he knew nothing of the massive campaign to win his release, spearheaded by his fiancée and Newsweek, until a guard called him "Mr. Hillary Clinton."

Woven into the narrative about his familial history, his professional life, and his imprisonment, an ever-present love ties Maziar Bahari's story together. It is love of country. Patriotic love is not exclusive to the United States, and reading Then They Came For Me showed me much of value in the history and people of Iran. In these days of heightened tension between our countries, reading Bahari's book reminded me of a deeper story behind the headlines.

When we look deeper, even events that seem devastating at first can bring us exactly what we need, according to Amy Julia Becker. Ensconced in a happy marriage, fulfilling career, and cozy apartment as house parents at a private boarding school, Amy Julia Becker and her husband, Peter, await the arrival of their baby girl eagerly. When she arrives, Penny is diagnosed with Down Syndrome. The diagnosis leads to previously unimaginable post-partum feelings; instead of pure joy, Becker describes a mixture of grief and love.

As Becker presents vignettes from her family's life with Penny, her own view of her daughter veers from grief to acceptance to awe and joy. Throughout, her strong faith and her supportive husband anchor her as she learns to be a parent, not an easy task even in what most of us would think of as "ideal" circumstances. In Becker's unwavering maternal love, to her own surprise, she finds that Penny is ideal. As I read along, my emotions began to mirror Becker's. Her pride in her daughter's abilities, her loyalty to her and protection of her, and her ability to see Penny herself, not just a child with a syndrome, made Becker relatable, challenging, and inspiring.

After love of country and love of a child, love of a business hardly seems as inspiring. Stacey Edgar, however, started Global Girlfriends not out of a love of commerce, but a desire to help impoverished women. Global Girlfriends, started in her home with seed money from an income tax refund, grew out of Edgar's belief that a successful business model would include partnering with small craft groups worldwide to develop beautiful, on-trend products that would find a wider niche in the first-world market. She wasn't just a conduit to bring crafts to a new outlet, she felt. Global Girlfriends needed to be just that: a collection of girlfriends, each bringing her gifts to the table to share.

For Edgar, the personal connection to the artisans is essential; she recognizes the change wrought in our spending habits when women know the story of the women crafters. When she travels to Nepal and feels as if she's been brought into the artisans' family, she internalizes the "namaste" greeting, which conveys the idea that the light of God inside me acknowledges and accepts the light of God inside you. Global Girlfriends is a love story about the power of friendship and compassion to give all of us an opportunity to be made more healthy and whole.

My world can get surprisingly small sometimes. Though we travel often with Honey's work, I can shrink it down like a turtle until my world is contained in my house. Maziar Bahari, Amy Julia Becker, and Stacey Edgar helped open me back up to love and hope this month. I hope you'll enjoy at least one of their stories for yourself.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the true life story of a mom taking her tax return and starting up a business from her garage to help impoverished women in third world countries.

I loved her admiration and passion for women helping women, her belief in sparking a world-wide community of sisterhood (Global Girlfriends) who would value the people behind the products and reach out to take care of each other.

Talking about extreme poverty she said: "...nearly 3 billion people [live] on less than $2 a day, and 26,500-30,000 children die each day, from preventable disease, or no access to clean water, or simple starvation. This situation is like a global human holocaust where we close our eyes while innocent people die of curable diseases like malaria and dysentery, and from lack of food."


"With all the images of unnecessary suffering, we are inoculated into inaction because we feel nothing we could do personally could make a dent in the larger problem."

There is this kind of paralyzing "What can I do about it?" feeling that I get when I consider global inequality. The story of her travels to women artisans in Africa, Haiti, Nepal, and India gave more of a human face to the problem, and I felt inspired by the fact that she, a middle class mother of three kids from Colorado, was able to do something to help them.

The last chapter of the book had a nice brief "how to" portion with some practical ideas (start in your local community, be yourself and use your interests and resources) and references to various non-profits.

Anyway, five stars for the story and inspiration. The execution of it was a bit repetitive and I struggled to maintain my interest in the second half, primarily because I have a hard time caring about style or fashion. Even when making fashionable handbags can mean bringing a woman in Kenya out of poverty, too many details about the shape of the bag or consumer interest got me skimming to find the next "people story" part of the narrative.

[Halle Butvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stacey Edgar is One Mango Tree's biggest customer. We partnered with Global Girlfriend in 2009 to head up our US wholesale distribution - anytime you see One Mango Tree product in a shop in the US, it got there through Global Girlfriend's relationships. Stacey visited Uganda in August 2009, on a trip to decide whether or not to partner with us to develop organic cotton knit clothing. The trip was a success, and our apparel line is a now a huge part of our business.

I've been waiting to read the book since then - when Stacey was working on a Uganda chapter (Ch 11). It definitely does not disappoint - I loved reading about how she got started, and the ups and downs of getting into this type of business. If you're into fair trade, or thinking about starting a fair trade business, this is a great read to get your brain going.

[Max Knickerbocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond phenomenal!!! If everyone did 5% of what this wonderful compassionate loving woman did-----
the world would have no more poverty. I have approx. 25 books on my list to read in this genre.
Can't wait----inspires me to try to do as much as ;possible. I highly recommend Yunus----he has written approx. 10 books on global poverty and is pretty much the one who started kiva. I just adore him. I am shocked that some reviewers stated the book was tedious. Absolutely amazed. I was hanging on every word; to be reading the story of someone who is helping millions of women, no, not thousands as some of the reviewers stated, was more than enough to keep me 1000% enthralled. She is absolutely amazing.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very educational and inspiring. I found it to be interesting and fun to read.
This book is about a woman who set out to help woman in other countries get out of poverty. She did this in small steps by buying the products these women make and selling them here in the U.S. She would pay them in advance and then when the items came, she would sell them at parties. Then she took the money she made and bought more items from more women. She helped thousands of women. She did this with a $2000.00 income tax refund and ended up with a large for-profit company which uses fair-trade policies to help women worldwide. It is an incredible story of how one person can change many lives if they just take a stand. It is a must read for anyone who wants to be inspired.

[Cyndi Maupin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is interesting how people come in and out of your life and for me Stacey Edgar has crossed my path a number of times. I recently read her book on how she started Global Girlfriends and many of her stories were very similar to my own experience and inspiration to start my business, Entwined Artistry. She provided a lot of resources, inspiring stories of women around the globe all struggling to make a life for their families. On reading this book it does show that one person can make a difference, one girlfriend at at time. I would recommend the book, especially for those that want to find a way to make a difference in the world. You don't have to start a business to touch someone you just need the determination and the will to say I will do this.

[Constance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers like me, with little business or travel abroad, will likely be delighted with Global Girlfriends. The success and struggles of Stacey Edgar and her international craft network is an inspiration. The story has the potential to twister you into cheer, skepticism, sympathy, and turn you green with envy. If St. Martin's Press publishes a second edition, I suggest they include some pictures and reference maps. Guessing the identity of the women gracing the cover as Sanita and Rina Bajrackarya, Sharashwoti Shakya, and maybe Gita let me convey, namaste. One product surprisingly not mentioned item in demand is, of course, more books.

Please notify me if this review is considered a spoiler.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction. Wonderful, inspiring story of how the author followed her convictions, interwoven with the stories of her colleagues, and friends - real women all over the world, from Guatemala to Nepal, from Haiti to Uganda. It is a passionate argument for simple actions we can all take to eliminate extreme poverty. There are many ways that we can all help...as simple as purchasing Fair Trade Coffee....and other products. Important book to learn more about living conditions around the world...and the unite spirit of women, everywhere to rise above poverty.

[Kristen Ayne Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, easy read

I read this book after purchasing items for gifts and was curious about the company. This is a good book for a non-business person like me (nurse) and an interesting read about Stacey and her experiences starting and growing Global Girlfriend. I really liked reading about her travels and meetings with the artisans from whom the company gets the items sold. I will definitely be more mindful of how a purchase can impact more lives than mine and the recipient of my purchases.

[Elizabeth W · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I like best about this book is that it is the story of one regular woman who acted on the passion she had for people in need. Starting small, she ultimately created an incredible global organization (and website) that makes a very real difference in the lives of thousands of women. It is an inspiration to everyone that you can change the world from where you are and with what you have.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely inspiring and amazing. This is one woman's journey to build and help other women around the world. Makes you think, show alittle bit more gratitude and find all the small and big ways you can change the world.

[Victoria L. Trifu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very inspiring! I'm all geared up to save the world, one woman at a time! I especially loved how Stacey traveled to the countries and villages with which she worked with. I have recently been bitten by the travel bug and felt as if I were there with her meeting these remarkable women.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book at whole foods. The writer lives in Littleton CO. I love everything about this book. Her experiences an how she helps women all over the world. Would love to be part of something this big one day!

[Susy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an author,Stacey Edgar is okay. As an inspiration, she is phenomenal! Her belief, commitment, daring, and energy really shine a light on what is possible. The book is well worth reading to gain that sense of the possible and then to formulate your dream to make a difference.

[Denice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think the writing of this book is worth 5 stars but it's ideas certainly are. When I finished reading this I felt that with very little effort I really could make a difference in another woman's life.

[Maryann · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun to see the names of folks I know in this book. A few too many details, but great example of how a business grows.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and a quick read.

[Mical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to hear how one woman chose to make a difference with her $2000 tax refund. Very doable.

[Rabih & Yasmine Zahnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and uplifting

I really appreciated the journey that Stacy took us on. It felt like we toured the world with her, with the fears, challenges, as well as the excitements.

[Michele Inks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will give you a good view of women's lives outside of the U.S. & how we can each do more for our global sisterhood.

[Cynthia Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by UMW READING CLUB for
Leadership Development 2017. It was an inspiration to learn what one woman could do to make a difference globally.

[JoAnna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three-line review: With a $2,000 tax return and a desire to create economic opportunities for women in mid- and low-income countries, Edgar launched Global Girlfriend, a fair-trade business employing female artisans around the world to make products specifically sold to an American market. Edgar's ambitions come from a well-meaning place, and I appreciate that she specifically visited and got to know the women and vendors Global Girlfriend works with, but I felt uneasy reading about her intention to find and vet products specifically marketable to the Whole Foods crowd -- even going so far as to teach women specific craft-making skills -- versus embracing and celebrating the culturally and ethnically diverse arts and crafts that make these women and the places they live unique. As for the book itself, it was a fairly boring read: Simply an account of Edgar's travels meeting these women followed by an appendix that suggests people engage in voluntourism, including "caring for orphans" -- yikes!

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the UMW list, but not overtly religious. It's about a mom who got depressed by bad things in the world and wanted to help. She decided to help women in poverty by helping them find a market for their products in the US.

Lots of tales of particular women and businesses created and run by women.

[Oriyah N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially, this book bored the heck out of me. It read like a memoir, but without anything of particular interest having happened to the author herself. All the interesting stories she shared were of the lives of the women who manufactured the merchandise her company was sharing. Although the interest factor did increase, it quickly turned into an infomercial for her business (which is horribly named, by the way) and a call to buy fair trade products.

My in-laws are into fair trade. I never really got the rationale before. Having read this book, I really get the importance. But, to be fair (pun intended) fair trade is more viable for rich people. Which may even include the majority of Americans, America being one of the richest nations on the planet. The highest form of charity is giving someone the means to earn a living wage. This woman has found a way to do that for so many, and it is very admirable. I do get the impression that she comes from a rather well-monied background. As an American ex-pat who has moved to a country with a significantly lower standard of living, I can't help but ask myself where one should draw the line. I sound like a spoiled American if I say I grew up with a clothes-drier and using central-heating to my heart's content whenever it was cold outside, and now I hang-dry my laundry and bundle in layers of sweaters/socks/pants indoors all winter long, and that, almost a decade later, these things are still, at times, a great challenge. Poor me. There are people literally starving to death in developing countries and I can't find the money to support their businesses?

But rent is still rent, and food is still food. How many people would put their family on a strict diet of rice and beans for months at a time in order to give more money to developing nations? I'm certainly not at that level (and while I think it's OK to self-impose that, and educationally a brief stint of that could be a valuable educational tool, I think imposing such a diet and sacrifice on one's kids in a society where that isn't the norm is a good way to create children who are resentful rather than inspired.) Our norm is that we generally buy used goods (clothing, books when we buy them, furniture when needed, etc.) and spend money on charitable giving as well. But in a society where it's considered a success if you manage to put away the equivalence of $12 a month in savings, I can't really see buying fair trade products, especially as the import/shipping/marketing fees drive prices way out of the range of a product people here would normally buy (aka could afford.) Just as sustainable change needs to occur gradually in developing countries, those of us in already-developed countries could work towards gradual, sustainable change to lower our standard of living to be able to afford to share what wealth we do have with others, to a greater degree.

These were all my thoughts as I was reading the book.

Then, out of curiosity, I went and checked out the merchandise and prices...and while they are definitely more than I am used to paying for anything, they were actually really reasonable compared to other products on the market. And the stuff they have for sale is cute!

The book annoyed me, but I do think it made an important point.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stacey Edgar's company certainly does worthwhile work, but her book was somewhat tedious to read. Edgar's accounts of her failure to make it into the Peace Corp when she was younger, her marriage into a prominent political family in Illinois, and her travelogue of adventures, including the African safari that she tacked onto her visits to Uganda and with Masai women in Kenya, were a bit self-serving and unnecessary. On the other hand, it's hard to disagree with her intent to give impoverished women around the world a market for their goods.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning and ending of Stacey's story of her fair trade import business are strong, but the middle is pithy. I would have liked to read more of the stories about the women she wrote about, instead of Stacey's feelings about the stories.

It was a good book for light reading but it wasn't life-changing. If you're already concerned about living conditions in developing countries, this will reinforce your thoughts but perhaps give hope that we all can do something.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is insufferable. According to her, she does everything well. Her retail training? Home parties. Jetting around the world teaching women of different nationalities, cultures, and languages about "trends" and how to successfully manufacture them? No problem! It's all in a day's work for this overachiever. This seems to be one long I'm-just-amazing self-love fest. Important work, but the book is a farce.