Homelessness results from a complex set of circumstances that require
people to choose between food, shelter, and other basic needs. Only a
concerted effort to ensure jobs that pay a living wage, adequate support
for those who cannot work, affordable housing, and access to health care
will bring an end to homelessness.

Programs such as StreetWise (a paper that the homeless sell for money) and partners such as Off the Street (a five ACCESSORIES line made by the homeless that pays an hourly wage and gives back from each sale) give the homeless opportunities to do just
that!

Join us for a Launch Party to Announce the Partnership between StreetWise and five ACCESSORIES www.fiveaccessories.com on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 from 5:30 to 9:30 at Salon Serene located at 625 W Lake St. Chicago, IL. www.salonserene.com.

A fundraiser to support survivors of domestic abuse in Chicago

Each month we will be highlighting a local charity. This month five ACCESSORIES is partnerhing up with Apna Ghar www.apnaghar.org to promote their annual fundraiser.
This is an incredible event you will not want to miss as it brings in over 500 people from the Chicagoland area for an evening of exquisite cuisine, fine wine and lively music to support survivors of domestic abuse.

You are invited to attend:
Thursday, April 16, 2009
6:00 to 10:00 pm at the Great Hall, Union Station
210 S. Canal St., Chicago, IL
Please call 773-334-0173 and mention that you heard about the event through the charity handbags blog.

Apna Ghar (Our Home) provides culturally-appropriate, multilingual services, including emergency shelter, to survivors of domestic abuse with a primary focus on the South Asian and other immigrant communities. APNA GHAR service more than 400 survivors each year. For more information please visit www.apnaghar.org.

Helping others with five

Help others.... it just takes five

Wouldn't it be great if you could help generate income for someone in need just by purchasing a unique and trendy handbag?

At five ACCESSORIES, we are making that easy for you. Through the purchase of a handbag from our Honduras Collection, you are helping to support women and their families who participate in a Honduran fair trade cooperative.

Dilma is 28 years old and has 5 daughters. Her income from making recycled potato chip bags has been used to purchase medicine and provide health care - including hospitalization - to her children, who have often been sick. Dilma has also purchased a mattress and patched her leaking roof, all of which she hopes will improve her family's health. She now aspires to save enough money to send her children to school.

Charity Partnership with Local Domestic Women's Shelter

Giving Back to Chicago's Apna Ghar

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.Apna Ghar is a domestic violence shelter serving primarily Asian women, and was the first Asian shelter of its kind in the Mid-Western United States. The partnership with five ACCESSORIES allows them to move forward towards economic success and feel good about creating something that others deem fashionable.

New Leather Bags from Apna Ghar five ACCESSORIES is supporting Apna Ghar's SEW (Sewing Empowers Women) group to hand sew customized designs for Five Accessories. By utilizing leather remnants donated from The Furniture Store, a local furniture maker, that otherwise would have been discarded in the trash dumps, the Apna Ghar ladies are using the leather to create unique, hand-sewn business card holders, change purses, and small over the shoulder purses and handbags, with more ideas and design to come.

Many uses for coconut trees....

A Thai farmer from a rural province south of Bangkok has found yet another
use for the versatile coconut. Not only does its flesh provide food, its
trunk supply wood, and its juice make a delicious drink, but now Kitti
Maneesrikul is using its oil to fuel the family truck.

Here is another way to resue the coconuts...... check out five ACCESSORIES's new
cream coconut handbags. Five dollars from the sale of this bag
goes towards keeping at-risk-children in school in Bali, Indonesia.

Bamboo as a Renewable Resource

People in US spend three to four times as much time shopping as Europeans
do"
"The impact of the average U.S. citizen on the environment is
approximately 3 times that of the average Italian"
Adapt an Eco-friendly European lifestyle to save the environment and your
wallet! fiveACCESSORIES offers a variety of global eco-friendly bags that
won't hurt your wallet or your environment.

"Bamboo is a highly yield renewable resource and is one of the strongest
building materials. Bamboo's tensile strength is 28,000 pounds per square
inch versus 23,000 pounds per square inch for steel"
fiveACCESSORIES' Bali collection uses bamboo to make handbags such as the
Night and Half Moon, hence are sturdy and long-lasting, as well as
renewable