http://fairtradefederation.org Fair Trade Federation Thu, 28 Aug 2008 3:16:29 CDT en-us http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/6843 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/6843 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:56:48 CDT Fair Trade Sports Sialkot, Pakistan—a city not many sports fans know about. Yet, 75% of the sports balls in the world come out of this one place. The Pakistanis who work in the equipment factories are notoriously overworked and underpaid while the athletes enjoy the fruit of their labor—a problem Scott James stepped in to solve when he opened Fair Trade Sports in 2006. http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/6845 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/6845 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:12:56 CDT Marie Olive Fair Trade The journey to fair trade brought Bernadette Blais back to her beginnings as an activist and carried the residents of Hawkesbury, ON along with her. http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/5911 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/5911 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:14:55 CDT Equal Exchange When the Ecological Farmers of the Sierra Madres of Chiapas (CESMACH) found an important buyer to purchase their coffee, they were elated. Soon after, the buyer began to overstep its bounds and impose practices the co-operative felt undermined their development efforts. So, CESMACH got organized. http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/5310 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/5310 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:57:45 CDT A Greater Gift "Why aren't you in school?" Albertine Razafimahatratra asked some children in her neighborhood. Their answer was short. "No money," they told her. Many were the sons and daughters of pousse-pousse (rickshaw) drivers, who earn very little.Albertine decided to do what she could to remedy the situation. She paid for 15 children to go to school, and then she began teaching children in her father's house. This was when Albertine, backed by supporters in France, started Association Zazakely to... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/4965 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/4965 Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:47:36 CST Siempre Sol In 2003, a unique partnership between local Siempre Unidos clinics and a US-based non-profit formed to treat people suffering from AIDS in Honduras. They provided access to health care, medicine, and other services to the local communities. Yet, within a few months, they realized that these efforts only addressed part of the problem. In stigma-laden Honduras, being HIV-positive meant that even healthy people struggled to find employment. So, they decided to create SiempreSol™— meaning always... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/3596 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/3596 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:38:09 CST Fair Trade Federation In the 1990s, as the value of handcraft plummeted in a newly globalized market, local producer communities in Tecalpulco, Mexico were devastated. So, in 1991, the women of eight villages in Mexico joined together to form Artesanas Campesinas (ARTCAMP) and meet their own needs. http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/3829 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/3829 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:29:46 CST The Barefoot College began in 1972 in the small village of Tilonia in rural Rajasthan, India with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lay within the community. The College works to improve the lives of the rural poor by addressing basic needs for water, electricity, housing, health, education and income. Through a learning-by-doing approach that gives semi-literate, rural farmers and artisans access to practical knowledge, the College demystifies technology and puts it into the... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1988 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1988 Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:13:58 CST Ellen Dorsch, founder of Creative Women, Inc., remembers "I have always been guided by the values of equity value inmy professional and personal life; when I started Creative Women, after working40 years in the non-profit sector, I naturally embrace[d] equity as the corevalue of this business."During her career in public health, Ellen's visits to Ethiopia showed her formersex workers, training to be hairdressers, only to find there were no jobsavailable; and, rehab centers where women were... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1897 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1897 Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:54:00 CST "I became involved in fair trade from my parents," Crystal Waters, founder and owner of Shanti Boutique says. The Boutique is a Fair Trade company dedicated to bringing shanti - the ancient Sanskrit word meaning peace - through yoga, chakra, and sacred symbol jewelry. After traveling throughout the developing world as a child and growing up around her father's natural food market, Crystal was well acquainted with the impact of consumer choices on people and the environment. When she... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1851 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1851 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:40:53 CST Bringing New Color to Artisans' Lives Ramlal Khatri was a very talented artisan in India who had won prestigious awards for his wood-block printing work, a handmade process in which patterns are stamped on cotton using a wooden block. As part of an artisan community who has been practicing this art for generations, Ramlal followed environmentally friendly processes and only used natural dyes. However, these were not very marketable products. This group started struggling, and the... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1850 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1850 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:38:33 CST New opportunities for qalandar communities Amid beating drums and the shrill screech of bagpipes, a bear is dragged onto the center of the arena. The crowd, gathered for the wrestling match, cheers loudly as the bear is tied with a long rope to a peg. Their cheering reaches a frenzied pitch as ferocious bull terriers are loosened upon the bear. The toothless and clawless bear tries to defend itself from the attacking dogs. If it is lucky, it will defend itself in the three minute... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1852 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1852 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:41:41 CST Hope and Preservation With more than ten years working in relief and development for several international non-governmental organizations, Beth Sethi and Tammy Teske had seen the incredible benefits to families when poor women are economically empowered. The pair met while working on disaster response issues for Northwest Medical Teams. They founded Bambootique in 2006 as a way to provide an outlet for the purses, candles, jewelry, handmade paper, scarves, and other handmade... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1849 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1849 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:37:19 CST The Community Friendly Movement (CFM) , a fair trade organisation based in New Delhi, India, aims to both create wealth for artisan communities and provide quality products to customers at competitive prices. They work directly with communities at the bottom of the pyramid to reduce the number of intermediaries in the chain. Typically, the handicraft trade in India is highly fragmented and unorganised, says CFM co-founder Rahul Barkataky, and these disconnections prompted CFM's founders "to... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1775 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1775 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:33:08 CST You may have heard of the three little pigs, but you have never seen anything like these. These pigs live down a long dusty road in Nicaragua, are made from local clay into old fashion piggy banks, and changed the life of Marta and her sister. Marta and her sister live alone in a remote area of Nicaragua where a woman can make $1.50 a day working in the fields. Too old to work the fields and with no other family, Marta is a prayer in her church and spends several hours a day... http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1774 http://fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/ArticleDetails/i/1774 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:32:23 CST Cards from Africa (CfA), based in Kigali, Rwanda, manufactures beautiful hand-crafted greeting cards and other paper products for all occasions. CfA seeks to break the cycle of poverty for orphaned youth by providing stable employment, fair wages, and job training through a nurturing, highly creative environment - all with the goal of teaching them the skills to one day start their own business. The card makers are all young people who lead their families because they have lost their...