Archive - July 18, 2012

When RPCV Tara Smith buys lingerie, she thinks of women in West Africa-and she wants intimate apparel enthusiasts everywhere to feel the   same way. The 26-year-old co-founder of Cherie Amie-a fair-trade intimate apparel company with operations in Cameroon and the first of its kind to contribute 100 percent of its profits to sustainable antipoverty measures for women-will say as much on Saturday when she holds a lingerie launch party at Dallas-based Swallow Lounge to celebrate her Indiegogo.com video campaign. Her goal with the video: To raise $15,000 for her first lingerie line by Friday, August 31. Shot in a high-rise penthouse above Dallas, the video features three models posing tantalizingly in baby dolls, teddies, and panties handcrafted and sewn by artisans in Cameroon.  A brief description under the video explains why the company needs $15,000 to jumpstart a lingerie line.  Smith  explains why she felt the need to start a lingerie line . . .

Ghana’s attorney general is examining whether to open a formal investigation after a PCV stabbed a robber who subsequently died. PCV Andrew Kistler used a knife in self-defense and stabbed the attacker in the chest late Friday in the northern town of Wa, regional police commander Kofi Adei-Akyeampong said.  During the attack, Kistler, who was accompanied by a second PCV, was injured with a machete. The police found him with a bandaged hand and a bloody shirt at his house early Saturday. “One of the assailants tried to slash him with a machete,” said deputy regional commander Osei Ampofo-Duku. One of the two attackers, identified by police as Eliasu Najat, 22, was found dead Saturday morning. The case has been sent to the attorney general, who will decide whether it warrants prosecution. “It is possible they committed a crime … but everyone knows they were trying to defend themselves and this . . .