Wednesday is World Fair Trade Day. The Chicago Fair Trade Organization will celebrate by launching a campaign to make Chicago a fair trade city.
That means engaging Chicagoans in purchases that are not only environmentally sustainable but also guarantee producers a living wage for their work.
Chicago Fair Trade is celebrating World Fair Trade this Wednesday at Daley Plaza. In addition to more than 20 vendors selling fairly traded gifts, home accessories and jewelry from more than 30 countries, Chicagoland residents will have the opportunity to learn how to support fair trade and help us make Chicago a fair trade city!
Fair trade is a movement that provides a fair wage to artisans, most of whom live in third world countries. There is no child or sweatshop labor in the production of the products and the artisans have consistent work in communities where employment opportunities are little to none.
With nearly 3 billion people surviving on less than $3 a day, less than what we pay for a cup of specialty coffee, and 80% of laborers in some of the poorest countries being women, we can make a real difference by supporting fair trade.
The U.K. is way ahead of the U.S. in terms of fair trade support. Residents there have more than 1,000 fair trade certified items from which to choose including jam, pasta, and sports balls! But the U.S. is gaining ground quickly and we’re hoping to continue that momentum in Chicago through our campaign to become a fair trade city.
In the last three years alone, fair trade has grown 100% and Chicago Fair Trade is leading the effort in Chicago! To learn more about how you can get involved, visit us at Daley Plaza on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, where you can learn about fair trade and hear from city of Chicago Dept of Environment Commissioner Malec McKenna and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun. For more information, visit www.ChicagoFairTrade.org.
Among the companies you’ll meet are:
Casteel Coffee began in 1993 as a small batch specialty coffee roaster. Fair Trade coffee is probably the best known fair trade product which can be purchased in dozens of cafes around Chicago. Here we have coffee from one of our Chicago area roasters Casteel Coffee, who will be in Daley Plaza with us. This coffee comes from Guatemala. By paying a fair wage to the farmers, the coop is able to establish various programs including educational, environmental workshops in organic production, investment of funds for healthcare, transportation improvement and women’s programs such as providing loans to women to improve their micro-businesses. Visit them in Evanston or click www.CasteelCoffee.com.
Divine Chocolate is a great story because not only does the organization provide fair wages to its cocoa farmers, but the company is co-owned by the cocoa farmers themselves, too! The farmers not only receive a fair price for their cocoa, but they also share in the company’s profit. Started in the U.K., it opened up a U.S. office in Washington, DC, in 2006 to provide U.S. consumers fair trade chocolate. The farmer coop has invested its fair trade income in building schools, sinking wells for clean drinking water to villages, providing mobile medical clinics for farmers in remote growing regions, and fostering women’s income generation projects to help women earn additional income for their families when the cocoa season is over. Visit www.DivineChocolate.com for more information.
World Shoppe launched as an e-boutique in 2004 to help support women artisans in third world countries. It carries gifts, home accents and women’s jewelry such as jewelry made with seeds. Shown is the Seeds of Change Necklace and Bracelet handmade by artisans in Colombia. The project serves those who are underprivileged who struggle with alcoholism, prostitution, begging and thievery - the all too familiar products of communities with limited education or employment prospects. Several of the artisans are also single mothers, and for most, this is their only safe way to earn a living. You can find the pieces at www.World-Shoppe.com or at the Andersonville Galleria at 5247 N. Clark Street.
MayaWorks markets the work of Maya artisans who otherwise have no outlet for their handiwork. Based here in Chicago, the group not only provides a fair wage to its artisans but also technical assistance and educational opportunities. Giving women an opportunity to earn an income from their skills gives them self-confidence and hope for themselves, their children, their family and their village.
Their Aguas Calientes Striped Runner features some of the more traditional weavings of the
MayaWorks artisans with a touch of modern style. $40 and can be purchased online at www.MayaWorks.org or through fair trade retailer Greenheart at 746 N. LaSalle Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. The Fair Trader, another fair trade retailer located in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, features the Urban Explorer bag. Handmade by a women’s cooperative in Ghana called Global Mamas, it’s made using fabric scraps to make it a zero waste creation product! It retails for just $28 and you can find these at The Fair Trader located at 1623 E. 55th Street. Phone: 773-966-5269, www.thefairtraderchicago.com.
Malia Designs was started by two dynamic Chicago women to help provide an alternative to women in Cambodia who were involved with the sex trafficking industry. Featured is the Strawberry Mocha bag, $46.00, and a Silk Red Travel Wallet, $32. You can find them at Greenheart, a fair trade retailer located at 746 N. LaSalle Street in Chicago and several other Chicagoland boutiques. Visit www.MaliaDesigns.com for more information.
Ten Thousand Villages, with shops in Evanston and Oak Park, helped form an artisan group in the Philippines after an Evanston woman and her sister, who lives in the Philippines, worked together after their families lost their land 25 years ago in a shady deal between an American corporation and the Filipino government. There are no sewers, no roads, no schools, and no running water in their neighborhood in Baguio City. With the help of Ten Thousand Villages, the women in the Philippines learned how to coil newspaper and make various items just as recycled newspaper hot mats, bowl and placemats. They are one of the best sellers in the shops and because of their popularity in the U.S., the group is well on their way to being able to purchase land and build houses and a school. Prices range from $6-$18 and are available at Ten Thousand Villages in Evanston and Oak Park. Ten Thousand Villages/Evanston is at 719 Main Street in Evanston; Ten Thousand Villages/Oak Park is at 121 Marion Street.
Mata Traders clothing is made exclusively by women’s cooperatives in India that pay their employees a living wage and provide safe and fair working conditions. Through their work at the co-ops, women from impoverished rural and urban backgrounds can afford not only basic needs like food and clothing, but also something that is far too often a luxury in India; an education for their children. Every year thousands of children migrate to the megacities of India to find work and send money back to their families. Providing income to women is a way to combat the problem of child labor at its roots, and stop the cycle of poverty. The hand stitch work you see here on the skirt is done by women members in their homes. Mata Traders also supports home-based industries that keep the cultural fabric of local societies intact. It’s $44.00 and available at the Andersonville Galleria at 5247 N. Clark Street, Wolfbait at 3131 W. Logan Blvd. in Logan Square.
Rangi Mingi Gallery imports fair trade gifts, home accents and kitchen accessories from Uganda and Kenya after Holly Enzinga traveled there for work and noticed the beautiful work the women made but had no market to sell their products in Eastern Africa. Shown here is a Kenyan scarf, woven by women in Kenya from locally grown cotton and what’s really remarkable is how the production of this scarf engages several sectors of the Kenyan economy - farmers grow the cotton, it is then spun into thread and dyed into vibrant colors. Holly works directly with the women who weave the threads into beautiful scarves. This scarf retails for $28.00 and can be purchased at the Andersonville Galleria at 5247 N. Clark Street.
The Ugandan Basket is naturally dyed. It’s a very solid basket, made of bukedo (banana-leaf stalk) which is cut into thin strips, dried, and bound over with banana-fiber and buso (raffia from the palm tree) to form a tight coil. The dyes used are made from berries, plants, and other organic materials found in nature which gives the basket its rich and earthy colors. You can use it as a fruit basket, bread basket, or a decorative piece. It’s $38.00 and can be found at the Andersonville Galleria at 5247 N. Clark Street or at www.RangiMingiGallery.com.