Ten Thousand Villages of Austin’s Blog

Each year, Ten Thousand Villages USA organizes a gathering of staff, board members and volunteers at Nationals Workshop in Akron, PA. This year’s badges were etched on recycle motherboards (above).

This past week, Kitty and three board members attended on our behalves. Below is a reflection from one of our board members, Jo Krouse, who attended a session with Albert Espin Lopez, a visiting artist from Quito, Ecuador, and a owner of a workshop employing 50 artisans.

Reflections from the 2007 Annual Workshop:

Tagnua Tagua nut is very hard–it will dull your knife or carving tool. It is also scattered throughout remote forests in marginally accessible areas. There is a long, involved, coordinated process for collecting the nuts, drying, soaking, drying, peeling off the husks, drying, soaking in dye, drying (each step measured in days) before carving begins. It takes active organizing to get all this focused and to a product center.

Senor Lopez owns a workshop which is a member of Camari, our artisan partner. His goal is that 50 people have steady work with 12 month’s pay (their working season is 10 months) and that they can send their children to school. He took a leap of faith, a risk of investment, to organize and launch this enterprise. He risked his own children’s dinner and future to invest in and launch his enterprise. I took the children’s dinner as a metaphor for the kind of risk he took.

The key moment for me was the question, “Do you pay the people you hire or do business with by fair wage standards?”

There was a moment of confusion / interaction while he understood, by way of the interpreter, what the question was.

Then he answered, “Of course. I treat these people - all people - as I would want to be treated.”

We of the developed world did not teach him the fair trade concept. He had skills, determination, brains, and values that made him my equal by any standard. I had a moment of humility that shattered my image of the first world superiority. Impoverished countries have all the same values, hopes, dreams, vision, integrity as people anywhere. Perhaps one thing that differentiates the first from the Third World is greed.

Technorati Tags: ecuador workshop

In recognition of this year’s World Fair Trade Day, May 12, Carolyn Barker, a fellow board member and volunteer, penned the following opinion piece based on Kitty’s experience from her recent Learning Tour to Africa. It is a thoughtful reflection about the tangible impact of fair trade on kids in Kenya. This year’s WFT Day theme is “Kids Need Fair Trade.”

Carolyn is currently completing a dual degree Master’s program in Latin American Studies and Public Affairs at the University of Texas Austin. She graduates later this month.

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In a small schoolhouse on the edge of Kibera, one of Kenya’s most impoverished slums, sits a group of eager elementary school students. The room is so packed that many are sharing desks. Their faces are beaming with pride as they pull out their notebooks. In a country where less than half of students will graduate from high school, the future of these children may seem grim. Yet, in this school, there is a glimmer of hope. The students here receive a free lunch every day, and they don’t have to wear a uniform, which is required in most other schools. For thousands of children in Kenya, the cost of a uniform alone can close the door to an education.

This story may seem far removed from the lives we lead in Austin, but in a globalized world, we are more connected to the children in places like Kibera than we ever have been before. Truth be told, the school wouldn’t exist if not for the vision of people living thousands of miles away from each other. This vision is part of the Fair Trade movement, which promotes an alternative approach to the conventional system of international trade that tends to favors profits over meeting basic human needs. By creating market opportunities for economically disadvantaged farmers and artisans to sell their products at a fair price, Fair Trade seeks to reduce poverty and improve sustainable development. It is also a way of thinking about the economic footprint we each choose to leave in the world.

But Fair Trade is more than the colorful basket from Kenya that you bought your mother for Mother’s Day or the coffee you drink with the nice label on it, promising you that a farmer in Mexico or Tanzania has been paid a reasonable price for his coffee beans. In the case of the school in Kenya, it also means that 160 more students are getting an education that was closed off to them just a few years ago. Without the investment of the Undugu Society, a fair trade organization based in Kenya, the school would never have opened its doors. The Undugu Society employs disabled people throughout Kenya to make beautiful handicrafts, which are sold in the United States and Europe. Part of the proceeds from their sales is returned to poor urban communities in the form of micro-credit loans, job training centers and schools like the one in Kibera. Undugu is true to its name, which means solidarity in Swahili. Their solidarity stretches beyond Kenya’s borders in the form of Fair Trade to countries and cities thousands of miles away—and even into Austin, where Undugu’s sculptures are sold. The school in Kibera is one of the thousands of examples of the opportunities that Fair Trade opens up for education, health and employment throughout the developing world.

Saturday, May 12 is World Fair Trade Day, and this year’s theme is “Kids Need Fair Trade.” The image of the schoolhouse in Kibera shows just how deep this message runs. But it is just one part of the story. Fair Trade can help to keep millions of children around the world out of child labor. It can also help their families send them to school every day and put food on the table at night. Fair Trade will not solve these problems on its own, but it can at least start to heal the wounds of an economic system that has disfavored the poor for far too long.

Above: Kitty uses a technique of wrapping raffia around banana stem to form a traditional pattern of colors that make up a basket.

“We are sitting under the jack fruit trees on a gorgeous Ugandan day. Lots of children are playing around and neighbors who were interested in the Americans have come to visit and ask questions.”

About five weeks ago in March, Kitty visited Kenya and Uganda on a 3-week Learning Tour to meet the artisans who supply our crafts. Each year Ten Thousand Villages U.S. organizes two Learning Tours for staff, volunteer, and board members to walk and talk with the people whose crafts we sell here in North America. The first-hand witness of the impact of fair trade on these artisans both re-energizes our mission and strengthens bonds. More stories to be posted in the near future.

Click on the below thumbnail to view Kitty’s album.

by Kitty

(Video courtesy of Kitty’s friend from the tour.)

Small is the new big but insufficient nonprofits are taking advantage of the current digital media opportunities to galvanize their devoted audience.

Why not?

I am scared of the new and unfamiliar. I will not get fired for buying more advertising. I have done my job if I show that I can paint within the lines. Unlike advertising, word of mouth does not have established metrics and demographics data. I like the sense of control when I centralize the brand identity and message.*

Why now?

1. Marketing is about conversations.
Don’t talk down to me. National TV advertising is down. Radio is down. Print ad is down. Non-interactive Web site is down.

Talk to me like a human. Tell me a story. And give me a reason and an easy way to share the story with others.

2. Marketing is about invoking feelings.
Humans are irrational. Purchase decisions are, more often than not, made on the basis that a new product will change my life for the better.

People are buying one thing from you: the way the product makes them feel. People are looking for a free prize, a spot bonus—an exceptional attribute that’s worth telling their friends about.

How do you make people feel?

3. Marketing is about connections.
Quoting Seth Godin: “Nobody cares about you. Almost no one cares that you exist.” Advertising, like campaign posters, will get your logo, face, blurb in front of them. But is it the door-to-door, person-to-person conversations that are value add; that gives people cause to feel like they are part of a bigger, better reality. This keeps people coming back and talking to others about you.

People have limited time. You don’t have a right to their time. And guess what, they are also selfish. How are you, in that brief interaction, making them feel bigger, more connected, more savvy?

4. Marketing is about fashion.
One word: iPod. Apple fans are not purchasing technology. iPod ownership is a ticket to be part of the hip crowd.

Three words: Live Strong wristbands. Advocating a cure for cancer is a no brainer. Figuring out a way to satisfy the fashion-conscious, cause-driven, selfish—what can you do for me because there are 50 other things demanding my attention—person is the key.

Ideas for Ten Thousand Villages USA:
1. Start a corporate blog: You have a fabulous, amazing story to tell. Put aside 10 percent of your resource to listen… and to talk, to your customers. Unless you are prepared to be candid, transparent, timely and controversial, blogs are not right for everyone. However, successful viral blogs help spread a good idea and make people feel good, feel smart, feel connected.

2. Create a meme: Compact the fair trade ideology. It is too broad an idea to be easily conveyed or retold in N. America. Red Cross = saves lives. Jet Blue = cheap, good travel. Whole Foods = organic fare. It’s not easy to compact fair trade—I know, I have tried. Perhaps you can show, not tell. See #3.

3. Get visual: Not a lengthy feature. Imagine a 2-minute YouTube clip chronicling the growing of cotton to the point of purchase of a fair trade T-shirt. Call it the “Lifecycle of a Fair Trade T-Shirt” and spread it among your advocates. Imagine a single-panel, edgy cartoon on the back of a Ten Thousand Villages business card (dubbed blogcards by Hugh McLeod) conveying the meaning of fair trade. Try not being tempted to flip the card around to talk about fair trade the next time you hand one out.

4. Make the connection: Pilot an online community where people can leave messages for and hear back from artisans. People get to upload their fair trade item to the Web, artisans get to see what’s become of their handicraft, people get to witness (pictures and/or words) what’s become of their money (new house, school for the kids, community center, etc.) and both parties get to talk… and listen. Arrange a learning tour for the most active participant and a visit to States for the most active artisan.

:Post inspired by recent events and writings of Seth Godin

*I am a firm brand identity advocate. I do not underestimate the sweat, power or thinking behind a powerful brand, or the value it brings to the customer. But my role is to weigh that against balanced creativity. Think of the delightful variations around the Google logo (holiday and fan created).

Austin continues to be very supportive of its Ten Thousand Villages:

• Top 5 performing store (by revenue) in the nation
• Net sales of more than $200,000 in November and December, our most important months
• Third store by sales of Ten Thousand Villages gift cards nationwide

Behind these numbers, we often get asked, “Why qualifies you as a nonprofit?”

Education is the reason why Ten Thousand Villages is registered as a nonprofit. It is part of our charter to tell the stories of artisans and educate Austinites about the impact of fair trade. (And ultimately, we do hope that you’ll buy our products to support the artisans.)

Education is also why Carolyn, a fellow volunteer board member, heads the Education & Speaker’s Bureau. Send her an e-mail, via Kitty, if you are interested in having us speak at your event.

And to brush up on our skills, some of us will be attending the Storytelling Workshop with Diane Wolkstein, New York City’s Official Storyteller, on Monday, Jan. 29. This event is sponsored by Austin Area Interreligious Ministries.

Below is Doug Dirks’, Public Relations Specialist, Ten Thousand Villages USA, response to The Economist’s report on fair trade. Doug used to work at Ten Thousand Villages Canada and, until October 2005, served as Marketing Director in the Akron HQ. He reports to the CEO and is focused on increasing Ten Thousand Villages’ presence in the domestic and international fair trade movement. Bottom line: Doug lives and breaths fair trade more than most of us.

Quoted from Doug’s e-mail:

“I agree that our fair trade shopping dollars will not solve all the world’s problems related to poverty, safe food supply and sustainable agriculture. However, I do believe that each one of us has a responsibility to be concerned about the welfare of the people who make or grow the products that we buy. At Ten Thousand Villages, we take the time and make the effort to get to know the artisans we buy from well enough so that we can be assured that artisans are paid fairly according to standards that they set. If this means that we need to pay more than the current ‘market’ rate we pay more so that people can live more comfortably. We have been doing this for 60 years, our business is growing, we are making a small surplus and artisans are making progress in their home communities as well.

Just last week, I was in Colombia visiting small-scale coffee farmers who supply fair trade coffee to Level Ground Trading, one of our fair trade coffee suppliers. It’s obvious that fair trade prices over the past five or more years have made tremendous differences for these farmers. They have been able to maintain and improve their coffee farms (usually farms that have been owned by one family for several generations) even when world prices were ridiculously low and fair trade premiums have provided higher education opportunities for their children so they can move on to other careers. A number of these farmers are in the process of converting to organic practices and several farmers pointed out that, on their small farms of two hectares or less (five acres or less), organic coffee farming (integrated with fruit trees, bananas, corn, yuca (manioc/cassava) and sugar cane) can actually be just as productive as ‘chemical’ farming and less costly to the farmer at the same time.

In the end, we prefer to develop close relationships with the people we buy from so that we can be assured that they feel like they are getting a fair deal when they sell to us. We believe this is better than allowing the so-called free market to decide on prices that may end up making it difficult for artisans and producers to feed and clothe their families.”

Thank you to the American Friends Service Committee of Austin for coordinating such a successful Fair Trade Craft Sale and Education Forum. Ten Thousand Villages was glad to be a part of it for the second year in a row and look forward to the fourth annual event next year.

This sale is about much more than purchasing quality products. It is about:

• Supporting women’s cooperatives that serve as a living alternative to dominant forms of production and distribution that exploit rather than support the creators of the goods we purchase.
• Influencing consumer’s purchasing habits which will favor small producers instead ofadding to corporate profits.
• Shortening the gap between producer and consumer.

Vendors at the sale included:

Colores del Pueblo

Dignity & Justice Maquiladora

Hebron Embroidery Project

Hilo de la Justicia

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund

Ten Thousand Villages

Weavers of Hope

Jolom Mayaetik