Issue 19 (Winter/Spring 2008)

As part of our new Young Women's Learning Partnership program (YWLP), WLP will be profiling exceptional young women leaders. This month we spoke with Maggie Dawson, founder of Maggie's Pure Land Products. At the age of 29 Maggie is the head of a successful company that sells the dried fruit from the Chinese Soapberry tree as a natural, environmentally friendly alternative to laundry detergent.

Maggie first learned about the dried soap nuts when she was visiting a friend in Europe. Upon her return to the US, she tried to find and order them online. After doing extensive research on soap nuts, learning how they have been used for thousands of years, she teamed up with an experienced business partner who helped her locate suppliers of the soap nuts in Indonesia. She traveled there to meet with the suppliers, and while she was there met a woman artist, Ni Made Sriasih, in Bali who painted the cover for the soap nut box. She began contacting local stores and soon the soap nut packets were featured in nearly 800 natural food stores in the US and Canada.

Greetings! Bonjour! Ahlan wa sahlan! Last November, Women’s Learning Partnership launched our new and expanded French and Arabic language websites to accompany our revamped English language website. Information on WLP’s eighteen partner organizations, leadership and advocacy programs, multi-lingual publications, and events is now more accessible to a much larger audience.

The Resources section offers statistics on the situation of women around the world, as well as the details of laws currently in use. The Islamic Family Laws page, previously available only in English, particularly benefited Lebanese and Jordanian grassroots women participating in the Training of Trainers Institute in December.

From all of us at WLP, may we extend our sincerest thanks to the very generous donors responsible for contributing $32,534 during the holiday season, the largest amount of individual donations we have ever received in one month!