Ten Thousand Villages News

The following article is excerpted from "Alleviating Poverty via Fair Trade: Learning Experience of Mahaguthi," by Sunil Chitrakar, director of Mahaguthi Craft With a Conscience, a Ten Thousand Villages artisan partner in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Based on Mahaguthi's experience of the past two decades, we are confident that fair trade gives people a sustainable means of living. Fair trade means economic empowerment. Providing work, paying fairly and treating people with respect makes all the difference to artisans, their children and society at large. Fair trade adopts people-centered business practices, honors cultural values and respects individual craftspeople.

Mahaguthi was established in 1984 to provide skill training to women with low income and to help rural craftspeople market their products. We have been able to create sustainable rural micro-enterprises, empower hundreds of people, develop their potential and give them a dignified living using their skills. Mahaguthi works with 70 in-house producers, as well as with artisan groups in 15 districts throughout Nepal, many in remote villages. Fair trade is particularly helpful to small crafts producers who work miles away from the marketplace and who cannot bring their product to the market. For them, fair trade provides easy market access. Mahaguthi is a risk-free market for many producers, selling crafts in three retail outlets in Kathmandu and through export trade.

Fair trade is all about improving—be it businesses or lives. Mahaguthi has provided funds to artisans to create their own small enterprises and loans to improve or expand a business. Technical support, design and enterprise management supports have been provided to producers without any cost. I feel these are very important in the Nepalese environment where small producers are vulnerable to market complexities, and lack support services. In the absence of collateral, small producers cannot get a bank loan, and in many cases their managerial skills are not sufficient to cope with the challenge of running a business. Integrated services are needed to protect these vulnerable artisans. Fair trade practices provide them with a sustainable market, new design and market information, transfer of technical and financial know-how, and above all a little bit of courage—which is what they need most.

At Mahaguthi I feel honored to be able to contribute to creating opportunities for many people. It has all been possible with our common understanding from south to north that fair trade works. It works today and will work tomorrow. Let's make things happen; together we can make a difference.

Sunil Chitrakar
Director, Mahaguthi

An environmental threat becomes art in the hands of craftspeople on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. Ten Thousand Villages stores will soon be introducing their first ever product from a Kenyan artisan group that creates jewelry from recycled flip flops. Part of the Center for International Market Access (CIMA) in Kenya, the Kiunga Flip Flop Art Project is based within the Kiunga Marine National Reserve (KMNR). It is an area of outstanding beauty and ecological significance, where three interdependent habitats—coral reefs, mangroves and sea grasses—sustain an astonishing diversity of marine, bird and animal life. The KMNR lies at the confluence of two major ocean currents, and islands within the reserve are the most important marine turtle breeding grounds in Kenya.

Unfortunately, due to the confluence of these two ocean currents, a great deal of marine litter has accumulated in this coastal area. The debris, including rubber sandals (flip flops) and plastics from as far away as Indonesia, Australia, Somalia and Madagascar is deposited on turtle nesting beaches. These flip flops which cannot be digested, clog the turtles' digestive systems, leading to death. The loss is devastating, as a turtle takes up to 30 years to reach sexual maturity, and in one breeding season a single female might lay 400-600 eggs.

Communities within and near the KMNR, together with KMNR management, have developed an initiative to collect beach waste, particularly flip flops, and transform them into sellable handicrafts. The eco-friendly handicraft industry involves 40 percent of households in four villages, while positively affecting entire communities. Currently some 200 residents, primarily women and youth, collect flip flops and craft them into a color-splashed variety of fun, funky and functional pieces—including the bracelets being introduced this month by Ten Thousand Villages. To make the bracelets, artisans use a specially adapted tool to punch small beads from the flip flop soles, which are then strung onto bracelets according to color.

CIMA, in partnership with the World Wildlife Federation, is involved with marketing the products of the Kiunga project, as well as with developing appropriate technologies and building producer capacity. Kiunga Flip Flop Art is a fair trade venture. The enterprise provides women with a culturally appropriate avenue to contribute to the welfare of household and community. The income generated by the craft activities is invested in children's education. The project also offers youth a constructive alternative to traditional livelihoods of fishing, and thus lessens the pressure on natural resources. Cleaner beaches translate into a healthier environment for both human and marine life. Conservation, health promotion, gender empowerment and poverty alleviation—all in a flip flop!

From a report by Melissa Hand, buyer for East Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa and Sri Lanka

Ten Thousand Villages offers brightly colored handwoven napkins and placemats made by artisans working with Physically Handicapped Training and Rehabilitation Center (PHTRC), an artisan workshop located south of Mumbai, India. The group was started in 1975 by Dr. Fletcher, founder of the Wanlesswadi Hospital, an institution established specifically to treat people with leprosy. People with this disease, or who are family members of others with leprosy, are often pushed out by society and are considered "untouchables." Even though leprosy is curable, people affected by it are not accepted back into society and often end up as beggars on the street.

The goal of PHTRC is to provide training and employment to those affected by leprosy—people with very few other opportunities for income. The group produces handwoven textiles, with weavers working on hand looms. Currently some 40 artisans are working with PHTRC. Ten Thousand Villages is their primary customer, providing work for 10 to 12 months of the year.

Ten Thousand Villages buys products from PHTRC through MESH (Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped), an organization that provides training and marketing assistance to three communities in the Delhi area.

Palam Rural Centre, an artisan group established in 1978 in south India, gives work to one of the lowest castes in India, the "Untouchables." Using "palam," the Tamil word for "bridge," the group's founders sought to represent their hope that the center would connect rich and poor nations. Those employed by Palam are among the poorest in India; their traditional role in society is removing dead animals and skinning and tanning animal hides.

Originally artisans at Palam crafted leather sandals. Later, they moved into soap making and eventually agriculture. While the daily wage for artisans is comparable to that in a local factory or field, the real differences at Palam are the benefits and the atmosphere and conditions for employees. Benefits include healthcare for employees and their immediate families, pension upon retirement, free housing along with land ownership (traditionally unheard of for lower castes), and coverage of children's educational costs.

Education is key to the hope that is evident in those at Palam—not education for themselves, but for their children.

During a recent visit I interviewed M.P. Muthukumar, who has worked at Palam since its inception. I asked him what he feels must change in Indian society for all people to be accepted. "First, education," he replied immediately. "Children in my caste must find new [more highly skilled] jobs. We must also encourage inter-caste marriage; then there is no disparity in community."

Muthukumar's family is a perfect example of what can happen with education. Through assistance offered by Palam Rural, his daughter, Julie, became a nurse. At work she met a Brahmin, the highest caste in Indian society, and they fell in love. Both sets of parents eventually approved of their marriage, even though it was not arranged. Today Julie and her husband have a son. Muthukumar shared that this marriage would have been impossible without the education that Julie received and the changing view of the caste system taking place in India—all due to greater opportunity for education.

"In the old days I wasn't even allowed to walk on the same street as a Brahmin," he continued. "Today it is different. Even my son-in-law's father accepts me and eats with me and allows me in their home. I am very proud of it; I never dreamed that it would happen in my lifetime."

While such acceptance is not yet common across India, attitudes are changing. Fair trade contributes to this change in a very real way for employees at Palam Rural. "In the villages there is so much poverty, but I have permanent housing and a salary which helps me to plan my future. I also have a pension; even at retirement my life will be secure. This is dignity of life. From the lowest income level, I feel that I have come to the middle," says Muthukumar.

For Muthukumar, the financial security borne of the relationship he has with Ten Thousand Villages and other fair trade organizations contributes to his sense of self-worth. "In the villages people live a poverty-stricken life with no security. My relatives live like this, but for me, my life is secure and my family and I live with dignity."

Dignity, security, happiness, a future—these are universal aspirations. For many around the world, however, this opportunity is hard to come by. Ten Thousand Villages strives through fair trade to give opportunity to those who have the least and to serve as a bridge connecting developed and underdeveloped nations.

Carmalena Stoltzfus
Visual Merchandising Assistant Designer