Fashion One Foundation and Fashion One Network representatives traveled to Puerto Princessa, Palawan in Philippines to turnover 1,000 solar lamps to the municipality’s Local Government Unit (LGU) as part of the foundation’s Light A Million Homes Project.  The crew was welcomed and accompanied by outgoing Puerto Princessa Mayor Edward “Ed” Hagedorn as the province’s representative to distribute the solar lamps to the residents of San Rafael, Napsan and Cabayugan district, 3 of the remotest towns in the municipality. With no communication signals and no electricity, residents in these towns run a simple life with farming as the main source of income and sunlight as their source of energy. The families use candlesticks or kerosene to light up their homes not only at night but also during the day due to their poorly lit homes where sunlight can’t get through.

“The use of candles and kerosene for lighting are not only a strain in these families daily budgets, but are also the main cause of accidental house fires in the area,” Mr. Hagedorn attests, “I’m so happy that Fashion One Foundation are donating these solar lamps that utilizes a more safe, environmentally friendly and free renewable source of light to our province.”

Distribution of the lamps was held at each district captains’ house, the central meeting point for each town’s activities. There are residents that walked 7 kilometers just to receive the lamps, knowing how important this simple commodity is, which will help to improve their livelihood and quality of living.

“1,000 homes served, 999,000 to go,” Ashley Jordan, Director of Fashion One Foundation proudly announced, “It’s a great first step for the campaign and we are looking forward to teaming up with other organizations that share our advocacy to strengthen and capitalize on our efforts to provide solar lighting to impoverished areas around the world.”

Palawan is known as the last frontier of the Philippines where wildlife still roam and nature flourish. It is home to majority of the flora and fauna species not only in the Philippines, but also the world. The people of Palawan are proud of this and are proactive in preserving their land. Solar energy is a simple yet effective way to help.

Let’s join the solar power revolution. Donate now at www.fashionone.org/projects/light-a-million-homes.

To learn more about Fashion One Foundation and “Light a Million Homes” project and how to contribute or get involved, please visit our website at www.fashionone.org.

The World Fashion Forum identified how fashion’s economic, social and cultural powers can be best positioned, focused and managed to alleviate the world’s most critical needs. The goal is to instigate communication and mutual collaboration between leaders of the fashion industry and the United Nations so that fashion’s resource and humanitarian efforts can be optimized and directed toward positive and sustainable change in the lives of those in need.

Ashley Jordan, the CEO of Fashion One, was one of the panelists alongside with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the President and CEO at IMG Fashion Consultant and Inaugural Director of Fashion at Lincoln Center, and Pauline Brown, the Chairman of LVMH North America. The forum was moderated by Fern Mallis, the Founder of New York Fashion Week, and H.E. Lakshmi Puri, the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women who was the honorary guest speaker.

“The fashion industry acknowledges the social responsibility of bringing awareness to global issues through the power of their brands. Fashion One plans to spotlight these issues through programming that connects audiences to the part of the fashion industry looking to ‘give-back’. Audiences want to be inspired and motivated, and Fashion One, together with the Fashion One Foundation, want to be a part of this movement to voice’ and capture the stories of models, designers and brands looking to bring about economic and social change,” added Ashley.

This partnership between Fashion One Foundation and Fashion Hope, with the help of partner organizations such as Bigfoot Entertainment, Fashion One Network, Traffic Jam and MTV EXIT, aims to further build awareness and raise funds to support frontline organizations that help, rescue, shelter and rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking.

Besides donating to Fashion Hope through the Traffic Jam in support of its mission, Fashion One Foundation officially begin its collaboration with Fashion Hope on January 11 in support of ‘Human Trafficking Awareness Day’ by sponsoring the worldwide premiere of Bigfoot Entertainment’s feature film, The Girl With No Number. The film is a hard-hitting drama about a young Vietnamese woman that falls victim to human trafficking and will premiere on the Fashion One Network. Fashion Hope will also co-brand with the foundation, to raise awareness towards human trafficking by bringing the movie to this year’s Sundance Festival on January 17.

In the following months, Fashion One and Fashion Hope will be participating in various global events in the fashion and music industries, working together to support the cause against human trafficking. The Fashion One Foundation and Fashion Hope will work together to produce content focused on human and environmental awareness, which will reach out and educate the Fashion One Network’s global audience.

“The Fashion One Foundation and Fashion One Network are very excited to partner with Fashion Hope to voice awareness and help put an end to the widespread cause that is human trafficking. We have made a donation to support Fashion Hope’s mission, which both parties share. We are very pleased to announce our partnership with an organization such as Fashion Hope, and we look forward to working together long term,” Ashley Jordan, Director of Fashion One Foundation announced.

“Fashion is about freedom of expression and personality while also bolstering self-confidence and esteem. It is a natural fit for the fashion industry to therefore reach out to those who don’t enjoy such freedoms – who are broken, suffering and living a life of shame not of their own choosing. The fashion industry is also well placed to set an example by supporting fair trade supply chains, literally freeing people from slavery around the world. FASHION can indeed provide HOPE,” said Paul Myhill, Fashion Hope’s advisor and president of Traffic Jam.

To learn more about Fashion One Foundation and Fashion Hope and how to get involved, visit their sites at www.fashiononefoundation.org and www.fashionhope.org.

Be Aware, Get Involved. Stop Human Trafficking!

The Fashion One Foundation mission is to raise awareness for initiatives that encourage and support creative, effective, and sustainable means of challenging poverty, human trafficking, charity aid, education and environmental awareness. It hopes to reach out to its viewers and educate them on these issues, and on the non-profit organizations within the fashion industry that are making a difference.

Fashion One Foundation will make its debut by taking part of the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day with Bigfoot Entertainment’s feature film, The Girl With No Number. The film portrays a powerful perspective on human trafficking, as it highlights one young woman’s journey and how she overcomes. “The film showcases that human trafficking is a worldwide problem. It happens everywhere, and that is what is so disturbing and why it is crucial that we shed light on this issue. We launched Fashion One Foundation on this very day to create awareness through a medium anyone can identify with, in order to highlight and promote discussion about the issue,” Fashion One Foundation Director, Ashley Jordan explains. The Girl With No Number follows a young Vietnamese woman named Phuong Ly who must choose between true love or an arranged marriage to a foreigner to help relieve her family from debt. She is violated, abused, and locked in the house with no hope of escape. The only ray of light is the bond she develops with the American’s young, autistic niece.

The Girl With No Number had a special screening run during the 1st Singafest Asian Film Festival as a benefit event for The Asian Professional Exchange (APEX) and The Center for the Asian Pacific Family (CPAF).

The official TV broadcast debut of The Girl With No Number will be one January 11, 2013, at 10:30pm (Asia GMT+8 / Europe except UK and Africa GMT+2), exclusively on Fashion One.

The Girl With No Number is a production of Bigfoot Entertainment with producers Kacy Andrews and Ashley Jordan, and Michael Gleissner as the director.

To learn more about Fashion One Foundation, you can visit its website at www.fashiononefoundation.org.