fair trade

Sometimes people get confused and think that Fair Trade threatens the Buy Local movement. I'd like to propose quite the opposite and state that Fair Trade in fact compliments and strengthens the Buy Local movement. This is because Fair Trade, and Buy Local, and Buy Green for that matter, are all equal partners in a much greater movement which is BUY ETHICAL.

I don't know when it became okay for business not to be ethical or to not serve a real need, but somewhere down the line things have gone wrong in many cases. We are all too aware of this at the this moment in history with our current economic situation and the irresponsible actions certain industries and large corporations.

However, there is a silver lining. People at the grassroots level are responding in positive ways. All of these movements (fair trade, local, green) combined are building social awareness about how our everyday consumption impacts people and planet. That instead of seeing consumerism and capitalism as all out negatives, we can use them as powerful tools to care for the people and environment around us.

Want to dive in deeper? Check out this info-packed infogram about Fair Trade v. Buy Local from Ethical Ocean (click read more)...

When you are talking about fair trade you can now say, "Hey, there's an app for that!"  October is Fair Trade Month which makes it an idea time for Fair Trade USA to announce their new App.  I downloaded it onto my Android phone the other day and started testing it out.  Here's the deal:

• App is called the "Fair Trade Finder"
• Available via the Apple App Store or Android Market
• Use the app to find locations that sell Fair Trade certified products
• Use the app to upload Fair Trade products you find at stores and help build the largest Fair Trade database ever!

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Mwayiwathu simply means "blessings" in Chiyao, the language of the Yao people in Malawi.  This is the name that the HIV support group in Ndiwasa Village near Domasi (map) chose for their group when they started working for Dsenyo.  

HIV Positive Living Groups are quite numerous in Malawi because of the high HIV infection rate.  The purpose of these groups is to provide a safe place for people to share their struggles, council each other and encourage others in the community to live openly with the disease.  There is still a huge stigma associated with HIV, which is evident especially among men.  The majority of these groups are comprised by women, many of whom are widowed, and only decided to get tested for HIV after seeing their husbands die too young and suspecting AIDS was the cause.

Mwayiwathu is a group of 20+ women who chose this name for their group because they see the work from Dsenyo as a blessing and a solution to some of the challenges they face.  They use their wages to pay for transport to the hospital to get their ARVs (anti-retro virals), buy food, pay school fees for their children and purchase fertilizer for growing crops. 

On our recent trip to Malawi this August we interviewed each member of the group asking, "Has your quality of life improved through working with Dsenyo?"  Esinara Kwalamasa (photo left) said that it really has because she has learned new skills, she enjoys working together with the other women sharing her problems and ideas with them.  She also said that now she has money to cover basic necessities like food and soap which were a struggle before.

The Mwayiwathu HIV Support Group makes the following items for Dsenyo...everything is hand-stitched, no machines: Flowers (hair clips, ornaments, magnets, etc) and Little Friends (lion, monkey, elephant, bunny stuffed animals).

Click here to share this fair trade story...

 

By Ellen Arkfeld, guest blogger, who is interning with Dsenyo this summer.

Fair trade can seem like something beyond our reach, a word thrown around and printed on labels that we know is good but don’t fully understand.  But fair trade is pretty simple:  pay produc

The term Fair Trade is heard being used more and more today. Do you know what it means? Often, fair trade gets confused with free trade. Where free trade • Fair Trade Federation (www.fairtradefederation.org) • Fair Trade Resource Network (www.fairtraderesource.org) • Green America (formerly Co-op America) www.greenamerica.org • Fairtrade.us (http://fairtrade.us/)"

The folks at EthicalOcean asked me the other day, "How far away is the fashion industry from becoming 100% fair trade?"  My first response was..."Unfortunately, pretty darn far from it." 

The fashion industry as a whole won't be able to go fully fair trade until consumers as a whole start demanding fair trade with their actions.  You can vote with your dollars every day to make this kind of change.  By choosing to only wear a wardrobe that's been made under fair labor conditions, labels producing in sweatshops will have to start listening.  It's hard to resist those big sales at department stores in the malls, but if we all keep buying items without knowing where or how they were made, we aren't going to see much change. 

So this got me thinking...what actions have I started taking personally to build a resposible wardrobe?  How do I choose to vote with my dollars when it comes to fashion and filling my closet?  Now, you have to understand that like most of us, I'm on a tight budget.  I don't take a salary from Dsenyo yet so I don't have much of a dispensable income.  Therefore, with this in mind, I recommend the following simple strategy for building a socially conscious wardrobe. 

How to build a Responsible Wardrobe:
When you are buying a new item make sure it can fulfill at lease ONE of the following criteria:

1. Is it Fair Trade?  Do you see the GreenAmerica or FTF logos or credible information on the hangtag about who made it and where it came from?
2. Is it at least partially made of sustainable fibers? (ex- hemp, organic cotton, tencel, bamboo, recylce polyester, etc)
3. Is it recycled, upcycled or used?  (consignment shops and thrift stores are a great place to get items of clothing that you can't find fair trade or in a sustainable fiber)

That's it!  Keep it simple and start today!

Megy Karydes, founder of World Shoppe, writes about the changing of seasons and some great options for fashionable fair trade handbags.  This article appears in full at Fairtrade.us, an independent online magazine.

"We are busy, busy with business. Busy as bees!" said the ladies at Luso la Manja with huge grins on their faces as they worked on their first Dsenyo order which they were awarded after successfully
finishing their training.  All of the groups we have worked with are expressing so much joy and gratitude for the opportunity to work in partnership with Dsenyo.  They not only get business from us and are
paid a fair wage for their labor, but they receive free training from Dsenyo which elevates their skills to the next level and empowers them with knowledge about product design and quality standards for an
export market.  As each day passes and as I spend more time training with our producer groups, I am more and more convinced than ever that Dsenyo's approach fills a much needed void.