Noni Fruit
Everyone surveyed by the Pew Research Foundation in October worried about job security. Gen X and Gen Y were most likely to complain about pay. But a "lack of career progress," was by far the biggest gripe from Gen Xers, with 40 percent giving that as a reason for their restlessness, compared with 30 percent of Gen Yers, 20 percent of baby boomers and 14 percent of senior workers.
Thanks to the sour economy, two immigrants in search of the American Dream, one German and the other Fijian, decided to do something to help people make better choices about how they treat their bodies and their budgets. Aisea Kali and Andrea Patterson, both casualties of the economic downturn and who just recently moved here from the Bay Area, set up Calnoni LP in their Westchester apartment to import a simple juice the natives of Kali’s homeland of the Fiji Islands have drunk as a natural medicine for 2,000 years. It is Noni, or as the native Fijians would call it, “Kura."
Noni trees grow in private gardens in Fiji and its juice is used for many ailments. It is taken for diabetes, arthritis, migraine, high blood pressure and cancer. “The unspoiled and natural environments in Fiji, especially our soil, contribute to the quality of our Noni,” Kali explained.
"Noni leaves are often wrapped around injured joints to gain relief from pain and to heal injuries,” he said. “The leaves, dried or fresh, made as a tea are used to treat gastritis, heart burn and bowel disorders. We use Noni leaf oil, Noni bark oil and Noni fruit oil in our Noni soap and body lotions”.
“We all have been stressing out about unemployment, climbing prices, how to get your bills paid etc.,” Ms. Patterson said. “Stress takes its toll on us and spreads like wild fire physically and mentally,” she observed.
Mr. Kali and Ms. Patterson plan to move to Fiji once their business is well established in the U.S. “I want to build a health clinic there,” Kali said, “so our people who become seriously ill won’t have to be forced to fly to Australia or elsewhere for treatment.”
Ms. Patterson was a former sales executive for a San Francisco-based software company who used her fluency in German to develop the company’s European market. Kali is a former engineer for one of the top hotels in San Francisco.
The couple recently moved to Los Angeles where Andrea has taken a position in software sales, partially responsible for the German and US market, while continuing to grow Calnoni LP in the spare time she has. Their close and personal friend, Tom Roberts serves as Marketing Director and is responsible for developing the U.S. market for Calnoni; meanwhile, Kali plans to return to Fiji to oversee harvesting operations of Noni for Herbex, which is the local manufacturer of the juice. Herbex is owned by Gerhard Stemmler, an engineer from Germany who is heavily involved in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power to make Fiji less dependent on foreign oil.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
