Founded in July of 2005 by social entrepreneur Mary Fanaro, OmniPeace is a humanitarian fashion brand that donates 25% of net profits to charities supporting peace, education, human rights and ending extreme poverty in Africa by 2025. By using branded apparel and other consumer products as a vehicle to share its powerful message, OmniPeace has been able to gain supporters ranging from Hollywood celebrities to leaders in the global movement to bring change to Africa. To date the company has raised close to half a million dollars for charities that support their mission, and built two schools in Africa with two more on the way through their partnership with Ed Hardy.

For the next year, Fanaro conceived the idea of OmniPeace while watching Live 8, a string of benefit concerts created to highlight the urgent need to address global poverty and relieve African debt. Inspired, Fanaro decided to create a company to address vital humanitarian needs through the distribution and sale of branded consumer products that would allow her to quickly and simultaneously raise money for, and awareness about, the continent and its people – two things the region desperately needs.

A visit to impoverished parts of Africa moved Fanaro to find a way to not only take action that would make a long term difference, but also to align with an organization that shared the same goals as her vision. While reading the Los Angeles Times, she came across an article about economist and global anti-poverty crusader Dr. Jeffrey Sachs whose formula for making African villages self-sustainable was proving to be ground breaking. Soon thereafter, she contacted his organization, Millennium Promise, a non-profit seeking to end extreme poverty by 2025. Mary met with Sachs and with his support and blessing, OmniPeace was born.

The stars seemed to be perfectly aligned for the success of OmniPeace when a routine visit to the doctor took an unexpected turn for the worst. Exactly two weeks before the launch, Fanaro was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Needless to say, she was devastated. She had been so passionate and worked so diligently over the previous two years to get OmniPeace off the ground that she couldn’t believe the timing of this news. But as the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, make lemonade; and that’s exactly what she did. Fanaro asked her doctor for permission to start her treatment a few days later than scheduled and flew to New York and then back to Los Angeles to launch the brand on both coasts. The very next day she started chemotherapy.

For the next year, Fanaro fought cancer and poverty in Africa all at the same time. She knew that launching the company, instead of postponing it, would allow her to stay productive, strong, and healthy during a time that could have otherwise been very dark. In fact, it was the cancer that ended up changing her life and OmniPeace was the gift that ended up saving it. It is no coincidence that a few months before her diagnosis Fanaro came up with the OmniPeace slogan "Can Fashion Saves Lives?". Little did she know the irony that would take place as a result of coming up with this slogan and that by helping save lives of others she would be able to save her own.

Fanaro is now in full remission and has signed several new licensees that are responsible for bringing OmniPeace, its logo, and its mission to products, retail outlets, and the public consciousness worldwide. OmniPeace has garnered celebrity fans such as Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Casey Affleck, Kevin Costner, David Beckham, Jessica Alba, Sheryl Crow, Gwen Stefani, Eva Longoria, Lindsay Lohan, Sienna Miller, Naomi Campbell, Common, Alicia Keys, Zac Efron and many more. In addition, the brand has generated press coverage in media outlets including USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Women’s Wear Daily, Marie Claire, the Associated Press, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and People, as well as on Larry King Live, Access Hollywood, Extra and Good Day LA.

Daily, OmniPeace asks the question, “Can you think of a better return in life than saving one?” Fanaro’s response is “I can’t.”

The image to the right was the Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken by Kevin Carter in 1994 during the Sudan famine. The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards a United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away. Behind, a vulture is awaiting the child's death so that it can eat its remains.

This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken. Three months after it was taken, Carter committed suicide due to depression from this event.

The following entry was written in Carter's diary regarding the incident:

Dear God,

I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I pray that He will protect this little boy, guide and deliver him away from his misery. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the world around us and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests.

I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us how fortunate we are and that we must never, ever take things for granted.

On this good day, let's make a prayer for the suffering anywhere and any place around the globe and send this friendly reminder to others. Think and look at this when you complain about your food and food we waste daily.

These desperate conditions of poverty and disease inspired many people and still does so to this day. OmniPeace Founder, Mary Fanaro, is one of the people who took the image to heart. In part, it added to her motivation to create an avenue in which people could contribute to a cause and make positive change all at the same time.