Nepalese workers, like impoverished people in so many countries where opportunities are sparse, travel worldwide to find jobs that promise to provide income for their families so their children can attend school, and so they can obtain health care, build homes, and save to start a business. Leading edge companies - such as HP - seek to assure a better future for migrant workers, their families and their country, by avoiding workplace discrimination against migrants and forbidding the use of abusive employment -- directly and by their suppliers -- of agents that charge the workers.

Unfortunately, when disaster strikes, as it did recently in Nepal with the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck that country, migrant labor patterns mean families are separated in a time of intense need. We are heartbroken to think of the earthquake victims and of the workers abroad, desperate for news of their families and friends. In the face of a problem of this magnitude, we reach out to our network to suggest that you support leading organizations that do great work in Nepal -- emergency response and/or development.

In 1997, Social Accountability International (SAI) established one of the world's preeminent social standards: SA8000? Standard based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights, ILO conventions, international norms, national law, and industry and corporate codes. In 2015 alone, we have trained over 3000 participants in our SA8000? Courses and expanded our programs that work directly with brands, suppliers, and local communities to improve working conditions in supply chains.

Today, we have rapidly growing interest by Corporate Partners within our  Corporate Programs to conduct Social Fingerprint? evaluations for members' supply chains. Our Training & Capacity Building Team has expanded offerings, creating four new courses in the last 6 months including: BSCI Auditor Upgrade Course and E-Learning, Living Wage Webinar, and the SA8000:2014 Revision Webinar. We plan to develop a Basic Auditor Training Course Pre-requisite as well as numerous additional professional development courses including auditor interview techniques in the coming months. And we are constantly reaching further in terms of the issues and subject matter effecting workers around the world.

Currently, SAI's innovative projects include:

TenSquared, a revolutionary worker manager program that addresses serious issues of health and safety. Partnering with Rapid Results Institute (RRI), we've combined our expertise in labor standards and management systems with their proven change acceleration methodology to drive immediate, practical improvements in the health and safety conditions of participating companies. Thus far, 95% of participating teams have met their health and safety goals. 

Living Wage, a project partnering with 6 international standard setting organization and Dr. Richard Anker (former Senior Economist at the ILO), and Martha Anker (former Senior Statistician at the WHO) to promote and implement a living wage for workers. We are currently calculating benchmarks in 8 countries and hope to expand the benchmark calculations to more countries in 2015. We are also working alongside corporate partners to explore practical implementation strategies to paying the Living Wage in both owned and supply chain factories and facilities. 

SAI has also recognized a shift in the staff culture as a response to the demand for our work. Because our small, dynamic team is managing projects that require swift deliverables, we were inspired to integrate design thinking into our physical space. By making our office more functional to allow spaces for collaboration and balancing with private spaces, we hope to cultivate a culture that will transform the way we address our challenges and create ever more collaborative solutions.

All of this marks our 18th anniversary as a year of change, a year of inspiration, and a year of innovation.