Manchester UMC

Fair Trade Market Producers

Fair trade means life; life for artisans, farmers and their families through living wages, life for wild life through green and organic practices preserving habitats. Buying fair trade celebrates the earth and everything she sustains. The Fair Trade Market brings together vendors, and entertainers , from around St. Louis, who bring the traditions, products and dreams of thousands of artisans and farmers from more than 50 countries around the world. Here are just a few of their stories.

Dionisia Ramos
Emady textile group, Peru

Born in 1966 in Ayacucho, Peru, Dionisia Ramos has lived most of her life in poverty. Dionisia first became involved in Fair Trade seven years ago when the Peruvian NGO Bridge of Hope approached her about forming an artisan group. She gathered several other interested women together and formed the textile group, Emady. Thanks to their involvement in Fair Trade, they have learned how to sew, design products, and have acquired the skills needed to manage a business. Emady uses the 50% deposit that they receive with each order to pay for the materials needed for that order. Anything that is left over is divided up evenly between the five members of the group, with 10 percent set aside to invest in equipment and new materials. Dionisia says that the women have learned how to be efficient workers and are now able to make products much faster than when they first began. Working as a team, each woman has a specific role in producing each item.

Although Dionisia and her husband Victor struggled to provide for their three children before she began working with Emady, life has changed for the family due to Dionisia’s participation in Fair Trade. They now have enough money to pay for food, electricity, and the education of their children… read more of Dionisia’s story, see photos of Emady’s products and the Peruvian artisans working with Partners for Just Trade.

Products made by Dionisia, all of the Emady textile group and other fair trade producers from Peru and Cameroon will be available at The Fair Trade Market via Partners for Just Trade . The DVD A Thousand Fibers: Binding Together through Fair Trade will also be available. Watch the trailer online.

Kachimbi Thoya
Bombolulu Workshop for the Handicapped, Kenya

The Bombolulu Workshop for the Handicapped, located in Mombasa, Kenya, works with some 150 disabled men and women artisans to help them overcome their physical limitations and empower them economically and socially to become fully integrated members of their communities. Bombolulu started in 1969 as a rehabilitation project sponsored by the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya.

The workshop trains artisans in jewelry making, weaving, woodwork and crafting to provide them with a dignified way of earning an income… read more of the Bombolulu story in a Plowsharing Crafts newsletter, visit Bombolulu’s website or view Bombolulu products on the Servv website.

Products made by Bombolulu and distributed by Serrv, as well as fair trade producers from more than 40 countries will be available at The Fair Trade Market via Plowsharing Crafts.

Bunyaad
Oriental rug artisan group, Pakistan

Plowsharing Crafts purchases rugs from an artisan group in Pakistan, known as Bunyaad (formerly Jakciss) Oriental Rugs. Centered around Lahore, Pakistan, Bunyaad works with both Christian and Muslim rug artisans, giving people the opportunity to work together, transcending differences of religion, custom and tradition. In this manner, Bunyaad is a peace-building project in addition to being a job creation project.

Over the years, Bunyaad has grown to include over 820 families in about 100 villages. Bunyaad guarantees a fair wage for their artisans. In a rural economy that normally leaves people in very uncertain financial circumstances, reliable and consistent payment fosters unprecedented financial planning capacity… read more of the Bunyaad story in a Plowsharing Crafts newsletter, watch a video on how oriental rugs are made or view fair trade oriental rugs on the Ten Thousand Villages website.

Products made by Bunyaad and distributed by Ten Thousand Villages, as well as fair trade producers from more than 40 countries will be available at The Fair Trade Market via Plowsharing Crafts.

Nuwati Herbals

Nuwati Herbals creates handmade teas, creams, balms, oils, bath salts, scrubs and more from nature’s own bounty.  Rod Jackson began offering his creations to the public as Nuwati Herbals in 2002. Rod's Cherokee ancestors influenced his unique line of herbal products.  Starting at the age of five, Rod’s Grandma would send him out to gather herbs, bark, roots, flowers, and leaves, from which she would make medicine. From her teaching, Rod learned the proper way to gather, so that there would always be plants for future generations. Nuwati products are handmade in the USA.

Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas
Coffee co-operative, Chiapas, Mexico

Formed in 1994, Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas (CESMACH) is a coffee co-operative in the southern highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. The 225 small-scale farmers in CESMACH are located in the buffer zone of El Triunfo, a very important U.N.-designated biosphere, containing many endangered and protected species. Within the nucleus of the biosphere, agricultural activities are not permitted. Organic farming is allowed in the buffer zone, which separates the biosphere from the surrounding region, as long as it is done in accordance with a strict set of standards designed to protect the fragile environment of the rain and cloud forest. For thousands of farmers living in this area, coffee is the principal agricultural activity and their only source of income. Because organic farming gives higher prices, and because the farmers wanted to protect the biosphere, the farmers organized to create CESMACH … read more of the CESMACH story on the Equal Exchange website, watch a video of an Equal Exchange trip to Chiapas, Mexico, or visit the CESMACH website.

Products made by CESMACH and sold by Equal Exchange, as well as coffees and teas from fair trade farmers around the world will be available at The Fair Trade Market via the Social Justice Advocates Coffee Cart, the start of the entire market.