1st Place Winner

Entry #23

Credit: The Blessing Basket Project

Newsophine’s children say it all – buying momma’s baskets from The Blessing Basket Project® enables her to provide healthier meals and a better home for them. Today these Madagascar children attend school and enjoy a life of peace and prosperity thanks to your purchases.

Winner

Entry#2

Credit: Chelsea Bay Wills

Machamoud Isa and his son, Noor, on their farm in Anin in The West Bank. This farm is part of the Palestinian Fair Trade Association. Their olive oil is sold in the USA by Canaan Fair Trade. By opening up the international markets through fair trade, these farmers have been able to go back to organic farming practices, join with other family farms in cooperatives, and begin to make a living wage.

Winner

Entry#6

Credit: Baskets of Africa

A weaver in a village outside of Bolgatanga, Ghana, works on a fair trade market basket knowing that even in the dry season, when crops won’t grow, she can still earn a sustainable living wage to support her family.

Winner

Entry #10

Credit: Inca Kids

Lucca Rodriguez (2yo) from Atlanta GA loving her fair trade handknitted doll and finger puppet from Inca Kids. Inca Kids works exclusively with skilled artisans from Peru and is a proud member of the FTF.

Winner

Entry #15

Credit: MayaWorks

Mirna and Felicita proudly display products handcrafted by artisans in Agua Caliente, Guatemala. Felicita uses her advanced weaving skills to create an income which allows her to provide for her family. Mirna is MayaWorks’ Production Coordinator who oversees quality control to ensure products are ready for market.

Winner

Entry #20

Credit: Project Have Hope

Project Have Hope is a non-profit which empowers women in Uganda’s Acholi Quarter. The women are talented artisans who craft jewelry from recycled paper. Project Have Hope uses the profits to help the women establish additional income generating activities through direct loans, vocational training and agricultural initiatives

Winner

Entry #40

Credit: Laundromat

“Sea of Blue”.. Sterling blue #23 drying under the sun in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Winner

Entry #50

Credit: Eric St-Pierre

Rabaya Begum, an artisan with the Biborton Handmade Paper Project in Bangladesh, rearranges silk paper leaves that are drying in the sun. Photo © Eric St-Pierre, from his book: Fair trade: a human journey, published by Les Éditions de l’Homme, 2010, Canada. www.ericstpierre.ca

Winner

Entry #56

Credit: Vivien Sansour

Aida Karam is a Canaan Fair Trade olive oil producer. Born and raised in Jalqamous village, she and her brother inherited land from their parents and have been carrying on the Palestinian traditions of planting and harvesting while adopting new organic methods to improve their soil and their environment.

Winner

Entry #63

Credit: Robert Domoguen

Margarita Otgalon, aged 79, leads in the harvest of Tinawon rice seeds. As a respected “seed keeper” of her village in the Philippines, Otgalon is responsible for selecting the very best seeds for next year’s planting. A Fair Trade market for her village’s traditional rice means that this heirloom variety may survive into the future.

Winner

Entry #64

Credit: Mata Traders

Block printing is an artisan craft passed down for generations within families in India. The fabric is stamped by hand with carved blocks of wood, applying one color at a time. Mata Traders is proud to help sustain this beautiful tradition by using block printed fabrics in our clothing line.

Winner

Entry #74

Credit: Fibres of Life

Humour is a core skill in the simultaneously challenging and amazing journeys of fair trade partnerships. Growing laughter, pokes, and the candidacy that comes with it are our official indicators of growing trust, honesty and joy in our partnership between Fibres of Life (www.fibresoflife.com), and The Kumbeshwar Technical School in Nepal.  Photography by Visual Hues Photography.

In June every year, Evelyn Martinez separates the chaff from the organic quinoa seed after threshing it by hand. Her family’s farm is located at 12,000 feet of altitude on the Bolivian highland plateau. Evelyn is thankful to consumers who choose fair trade: her income has tripled over the last 3 years

Mousmeen, an artisan from Tara (Trade Alternative Reform Action Projects), spoke in favour of women empowerment on March 8th, 2011, (International Women’s Day) at a conference in Delhi, India, on women and media co-organized by Fair Trade Forum-India.

Sonam Tsomo, an artisan from the second generation of Tibetan refugees in India, welcomes the photographer into her room, which is provided by FTCI (Federation of Tibetan Co-operatives in India).

In Anupshahr, U.P., India, kids attend school at Pardada, Pardadi Educational Society. The organization produces handicrafts, and provides free education and vocational training, creating a new generation of self-reliant and educated girls in order to break the cycle of poverty in rural areas.

In Faridabad, India, spinning yarn used by the weavers of a producer group of MESH (Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped) located in a leprosy colony. Weaving is an alternative to begging for several leprosy-affected patients who still suffer the social stigma associated with their condition.

Members of the Hinga Kawa Women’s Coffee Association gather at the Abakunda Kawa Cooperative headquarters, Rwanda, for their monthly meeting. The women, many of whom are single mothers and widows, travel from remote farms to report their harvests, receive business updates and socialize with peers. Each meeting concludes with joyous song and dance.

Memuna is the first woman in her Ghanaian village to own a general store. Her entrepreneurial spirit was given wings thanks to the Prosperity Wages® she earned from The Blessing Basket Project®.

This school in Northern Ghana began with 20 young girls studying under a tree. Today more than 120 girls attend classes thanks to the school built by The Blessing Basket Project.

Sonia Anahue, Peruvian artisan, takes a break from demonstrating how to make filigree jewelry on World Fair Trade Day. Sonia visited the U.S. for two weeks with the Crafting Change tour sponsored by Partners for Just Trade and Green America. The tour visited 11 cities and educated individuals about Fair Trade.

These students attend an empowerment center for women in Jodhpur, India. As part of the lowest caste in a patriarchal society, they overcome discrimination and poverty as they receive an education and are trained as artisans. Dolma brings their fair trade crafts to the U.S. and helps fund their educational programs.

Saraswati was among the first graduates from an empowerment center for women in Jodhpur, India. As a member of the lowest sector in a male-dominated society, she faces double discrimination. She became the manager of their fair trade sewing center and makes lovely handmade accessories for Dolma.

A man in Nongkhai, Thailand, creating a piece of pottery using local clay from dried up riverbeds. These pieces of pottery are not only sourced using local materials, but also provide men and women a fair wage to help support their families.

Angela is a director at UPAVIM in Guatemala City, a women’s cooperative that creates and sells Fair Trade products. The sales help support childcare, a health clinic, pharmacy and a library for the families of the women in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city. Angela is pictured with her son as they make worry dolls.

Mayan women continue the ancient tradition of weaving on a backstrap loom, handed down from their foremothers more than three thousand years ago. This woman from Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala is weaving goods that will be marketed by Mayan Hands, a Fair Trade organization working with over 200 Mayan women.

”6967 and counting….” Laundromat’s knitting warehouse in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Imani Workshops artisan sorts through ceramic beads hand rolled from Kenyan clay. The beads are then fired with colorful glazes to produce a beautiful piece like the one she proudly displays on her neck. Most of these women have suffered stigma as a result of their HIV status and they find refuge, hope and source of income at Imani.

Attilio Perez, a member of the Bolivian Anapqui Cooperative, is pictured with gorgeous stalks of organic, fair trade quinoa. The organic promise ensures that these farmers will not come in contact with harmful chemicals and pesticides that could potentially harm them or the environment, as well as allows the farmers to stay on an ethical and sustainable path.

This Pwo Karen woman of the mountain hills of northwestern Thailand is the matriarch of a traditional weaving family. The skills are passed on from mother to daughter. She has three daughters who weave exquisite textiles for wall hangings, clothing, and handbags.

At a Tibetan Self-Help Refugee Center in the mountainous hills of West Bengal, India, live the Tibetans who fled from their country over fifty years ago to live as free human beings. They are content to still be able to practice their skills learned from their parents decades ago.

Dumes Compère harvests his ripe coffee berries. He is a member of the “Coopérative Agricole Caféière Vincent Ogé de Dondon” (coopacvod), an Haitian fair trade and organic coffee cooperative close to Cap Haitien in northern Haiti. Photo for Cafe Santropol.

Indigenous Bodo weavers from Assam, India enjoy a fun moment, while combing yarn to get it ready for the loom. Even though the loom is designed for one weaver, work, like every other aspect of their daily lives, is characterized by the spirit of kinship and community ties.

Indigenous Bodo weavers in Assam, India, are fascinated to see their images in a Sustainable Threads catalog. The photographer shared the catalog with them, showcasing some of their work, including their personal photographs. Discussions on markets and other artisan groups and the images helped the women reflect on their work.

Young Indonesian women paint beautiful and functional kites, using acrylic paints on nylon. The kite bodies are handcrafted from scrap bamboo, plastic bottles, recycled foam, and recycled flip-flops. Disabled young people also work making the kites. The family owned business supports girls’ education and other village projects.

Veronica Zavala of COPEMUJER cooperative holds newly harvested beets from her garden, which serves as a food security project and offers alternatives to fair trade coffee production for women organized under La FEM in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Anayelis holds her gallina, part of a revolving production package offered to women organized under La FEM in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Sitting on a hand-swept ground in the shade of a Marula tree, eighteen wild-harvesters meets weekly for a self-funded nanolending meeting. Because of Swazi Secrets, Mpaka, Swaziland, these women have the money to self-lend and achieve dreams such as “proper toilets,” making school payments, and eating “luxury foods” like rice.

Moving with dignity and age, “grandmother” centered herself in a meeting of the Kuupenda Association in Northern Namibia filled by Marula wild-harvesters. Now more confident and with an income, these women are able to gain in-home equality, pay school fees, and build sleeping rooms.

Bowls collecting rubber in its natural state from New Ambadi in Sri Lanka used in sneakers, flip flops, and rain boots. The rubber tapped from this forest is not only Fair Trade but FSC certified sustainable. The workers used the Fair Trade premiums to gain water and electricity for their village.

A Fair Trade cotton worker in India showing off her crop used for canvas sneakers and shoelaces. The certified organic and fair trade cotton is part of the Chetna Organic Cotton Project. Workers on this farm receive Fair Trade premiums, hold shares, and are eligible for micro credit loans.

After 8 years with Sadhna, Mamta found her voice as a Master Craft Trainer. Now she mentors women just like her to help teach them new skills so they can become leaders in their community and earn a living wage to support their families. Image taken in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

Located in Swaziland, Gone Rural is committed to empowering rural women, alleviating poverty, and supporting AIDS orphans through production of handwoven baskets and home decor. The 700 plus women who work for Gone Rural use traditional techniques to create culturally distinct Swazi products using locally available and sustainable natural resources.

Located in Swaziland, Gone Rural is committed to empowering rural women, alleviating poverty, and supporting AIDS orphans through production of handwoven baskets and home decor. The 700 plus women who work for Gone Rural use traditional techniques to create culturally distinct Swazi products using locally available and sustainable natural resources.

Friends Handicrafts is a non-profit organization that provides employment for Nepali women and sustains the ancient technique of felting. They use this method to create unique and vibrantly colored necklaces, bags, scarves, and children’s gifts. Based in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friends Handicraft’s mission is to combat urban poverty.