The Return of Monday Quote Day

Today I've rounded up a few thoughts on poverty. Here at World Next Door, we believe in fighting global poverty. Fair trade is the means through which we have chosen to take our stand, because we believe this means of doing business offers some of the poorest among us--the "global underdog," if you will--an opportunity to support and care for themselves and their families. It is a shot at evening the score, at providing a dignified and sustainable way of life for those who are working hard and coming up short.

"Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright."

Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Founding Father, statesman, author, printer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat...among others

"The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence."

Samuel Johnson, 18th century English author

"Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit."

Eli Khamarov, 20th century writer

Up, Up and Away!

While other sectors of the economy continue to struggle to make ends meet, fair trade is growing and even expanding.

Here are a few of the numbers, from a Reuters piece written by Marcy Nicholson, that showed up in the article I found on forbes.com.
In 2008:
-Fair Trade Certified coffee imports grew 32% to 88 million pounds, from 66 millions pounds in 2007, according to TransFair USA Chief Executive Paul Rice.

-Fair Trade Certified banana imports grew by a whopping 250% to nearly 25 million pounds. Contrast that with 7 million pounds of fair trade banana imports in 2007.

-Fair Trade Certified products sold approximately $1.2 billion in 2008, up from $1 billion in 2007. Globally, retail sales were about $4 billion, Rice said.

There's even more good news. Rice expects banana imports to jump "significantly higher" in 2009 because Sam's Club plans to double its purchases. Look for retail values for fair trade to leap up to the $1.4-$1.5 billion range next year "as major companies continue to look to the long-term trend."

Here's a link to the full article. It delves into more topics--fair trade jeans anyone? They'll be here soon--so check it out.

Half the Sky

"IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape."

Thus begins this weekend's piece in the NY Times Magazine by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife, journalist Sheryl WuDunn. Their article, entitled "The Women's Crusade," takes on the crucial issue of women's rights around the world. They've just written a new book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." (This title is based on a Chinese proverb which says that "Women hold up half the sky.")
Below are several quotes from their article that hit home with me on subjects near and dear to my own heart.

Also, be sure to check out this video on the NY Times site. Kristoff narrates a five minute slide show highlighting the issues he delves into in the magazine piece.

His last words?

"Women and girls aren't the problem. They're the solution."

Ok, here are the quotes.

Microfinancing and women:

"...Saima signed up with the Kashf Foundation, a Pakistani microfinance organization that lends tiny amounts of money to poor women to start businesses. Kashf is typical of microfinance institutions, in that it lends almost exclusively to women, in groups of 25. The women guarantee one another’s debts and meet every two weeks to make payments and discuss a social issue, like family planning or schooling for girls. A Pakistani woman is often forbidden to leave the house without her husband’s permission, but husbands tolerate these meetings because the women return with cash and investment ideas.
Saima took out a $65 loan and used the money to buy beads and cloth, which she transformed into beautiful embroidery that she then sold to merchants in the markets of Lahore. She used the profit to buy more beads and cloth, and soon she had an embroidery business and was earning a solid income — the only one in her household to do so."

Does this story sound familiar to any of you fair traders out there? I can think immediately of several groups we order from that work primarily with women (Sari Bari, Freeset, Hope for Women...)

Female mortality rate:
"Girls vanish partly because they don’t get the same health care and food as boys. In India, for example, girls are less likely to be vaccinated than boys and are taken to the hospital only when they are sicker. A result is that girls in India from 1 to 5 years of age are 50 percent more likely to die than boys their age. In addition, ultrasound machines have allowed a pregnant woman to find out the sex of her fetus — and then get an abortion if it is female.The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century."

Death in childbirth:

"Another huge burden for women in poor countries is maternal mortality, with one woman dying in childbirth around the world every minute. In the West African country Niger, a woman stands a one-in-seven chance of dying in childbirth at some point in her life. (These statistics are all somewhat dubious, because maternal mortality isn’t considered significant enough to require good data collection.) For all of India’s shiny new high-rises, a woman there still has a 1-in-70 lifetime chance of dying in childbirth. In contrast, the lifetime risk in the United States is 1 in 4,800; in Ireland, it is 1 in 47,600. The reason for the gap is not that we don’t know how to save lives of women in poor countries. It’s simply that poor, uneducated women in Africa and Asia have never been a priority either in their own countries or to donor nations."

Human trafficking and modern-day slavery:
"In the developing world, meanwhile, millions of women and girls are actually enslaved. While a precise number is hard to pin down, the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, estimates that at any one time there are 12.3 million people engaged in forced labor of all kinds, including sexual servitude. In Asia alone about one million children working in the sex trade are held in conditions indistinguishable from slavery, according to a U.N. report. Girls and women are locked in brothels and beaten if they resist, fed just enough to be kept alive and often sedated with drugs — to pacify them and often to cultivate addiction. India probably has more modern slaves than any other country."

Get Your Cadbury

Candadians rejoice! Today Cadbury announced that their Dairy Milk line will be fair trade in Canada by as early as next summer.
Australia and New Zealand will also go fair trade in 2010, officials for the chocolate company say. Cadbury announced earlier this year that British and Irish markets would also make the change to fair trade; that change is already going into effect.
Here's the good news: around the globe, about 1 in 4 Dairy Milk sales will be fair trade certified next year. The bad? The other three-quarters of sales--including the U.S. market--that will not be.
But let's focus on the positive here. Cadbury officials say that they will sell four times more fair trade cocoa in 2010 than they did in 2008. Cocoa farmers in Ghana, the country that will reap the benefits of the swap to fair trade, are expected to sell 15,000 more tonnes in 2010 than in 2008.
Here's what one cocoa farmer, Francis Sampson Kwesi, 48, said about how the swap to fair trade will help him (albeit to Cadbury public relations flacks):
"One of the main benefits is that I can invest the proceeds out of the cocoa in things such as the upkeep of the children’s school fees, as well as in developments for the whole community, such as building roads. It helps us to have a higher standard of living, as although the land here [in Ghana] is good for cocoa growing, when we are not in the season of cocoa, we need everything else to help make the environment more conducive for cocoa growing.”


OK, here are my thoughts. In the U.S., Cadbury Dairy Milk products are produced by Hershey. Can't we, here in the States, encourage these chocolate companies to produce and sell fair trade chocolate right here at home?
This is an old campaign by Green America that we've promo'd before, but feel free to jump on board again and encourage Hershey to go fair trade.
Why?
I'm so glad you asked. About 75% of the world's chocolate is produced in Ghana and its neighboring country, the Ivory Coast. Those in the know estimate that literally hundreds of thousands of children are working illegally in cocoa plantations in these two countries. (In fact, 50 children were freed from working illegally on these plantations in an Interpol operation this June. These children were purchased for cheap labor by plantation owner needing ready hands. Read about it here.)
True fairness would mean that the chocolate we love and enjoy is made by people who are able to enjoy their lives as well. It would mean that our pleasures would not require the pain of others.

A Little Bit Nutty

You'll go nuts for these bracelets...literally!
Handcrafted in Columia by economically disadvantaged women, these bracelets are made of tagua nuts,, which grow on tagua palms in South America. The nuts used in this jewelry are indigenous to Columbia.
The tagua palm has an amazing story. They first became popular as a responsible substitute for elephant ivory. Today, they prevent the destruction of rain forests and are used to make everything from beads to buttons and even bagpipes!
Workers at Hope for Women produced these bracelets. This group aims to provide sustanable employment for women around the world, giving them the chance to take control of their lives and their future.
Here's what Rosa, a Columbian mother of two, says about her work with the company:

“Working with handicrafts is my life and I love what I do each day. I have been an artisan for more than 10 years, starting with collecting raw materials and then being trained to be a skilled craftsperson. The work is very comfortable and satisfying and I enjoy the relationships with the people I work with – they are like my second family...I think the sky is the limit for me. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t have the chance to study when I was young – with this work I know I will be growing everyday and I can take care of myself and my family."

You can buy these bracelets at our online store, or, as always, in our Chattanooga storefront location.

Autumn Hours

School's back in and today is the first hint that fall weather is not too far away (we very much hope, although we still expect 90+ degree days for a good month). In keeping with the time of year, autumn hours will go into effect tomorrow.
Here's the schedule:

Sunday: 1 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Friday through Saturday: 1 a.m. - 9 p.m.

We hope to see you soon!

Jackman Tackles Trade

Hollywood star Hugh Jackman has taken on a new project, according to Britain's Hello magazine. Jackman has taken to the New York streets, camera crew in tow, as he barges into the restaurants and coffee shops of unsuspecting small business owners "tackling the issue of fair trade for producers in the developing world."

Hello says that:

Father of two Hugh is deeply involved in anti-poverty initiatives. After shooting an advert recently on the topic for the UN, he said his commitment was "as an actor... not an economist”...

He is looking to answer questions such as “How is it that a kid dies every three seconds from extreme poverty".

We're all in favor of this latest work...and can't wait to see the documentary he comes up with!

Reverse Trick or Treat

Halloween is months and months away, but that doesn't mean it's too early to start thinking about how to make this year's ghoulish event the best ever.

I, for one, think that means fair trade. And luckily enough, for the third straight year, Global Exchange and Equal Exchange have partnered up to provide chocolate and fair trade info to hand to all comers. Here's what Equal Exchange says about the program: "The goal of the campaign is for trick-or-treaters nationwide to distribute informational cards, each with a piece of Fair Trade chocolate, to as many households as possible."

I know it's only mid-August (already? where has the summer gone?!?!), but it's already time to place orders for this year's Reverse Trick-or-Treat program. Orders for chocolate and postcards must be placed by Oct. 1, but word is that the chocolate will be gone long before then. (Note: orders from Southern states--like Tennessee--will cost $15 more for shipping since warm temperatures down here require 2nd Day Air.)

One blogging mom did this program last year. I thought you might be interested on her take on the experience, as she did the Reverse Trick-or-Treat a bit differently than the groups sponsoring the event suggest.

We gave the candy to teachers, the boys’ friends' parents, and neighbors a day or so before Halloween.
I felt a little preachy doing it, but I thought, “I’m giving them chocolate so I’m sure they won’t mind.” I wanted to spread the word a bit about the importance of fair trade chocolate, but I was hesitant to have my boys hand it out as they went door to door begging others for candy. I didn’t want them to give a message to people they didn’t know that might have been interpreted like this:
You know that candy you just gave me. It could have been better. The candy you just generously gave me, that I asked you for, was probably made from cocoa picked by poor kids who are being overworked. You should give different, better candy.
So we went the route of friends and neighbors who I thought wouldn’t interpret it like that.

Coldplay Says: Make Trade Fair

This is an old video, but who doesn't want to see Chris Martin of Coldplay argue, via his music, for fair trade? Martin visited Africa a few years ago, sent by Oxfam America and Make Trade Fair. His goal was to "see firsthand the extreme poverty endured by so many and how fair trade in these areas can improve...lives."

Artist Profile

Time for a look at some of the wonderful people we do business with!

Today I thought we'd focus on Soul of Somanya, based in Somanya-Krobo, Ghana. This fair trade company is "working hard to develop sustainable employment opportunities in the field of bead work for working-age orphans and other young people whose job prospects are very limited by their lack of family support and/or limited levels of education."
While the bead work and jewelry creation takes place in Ghana, marketing is handled halfway around the world in Mobile, Alabama! Soul of Somanya took its first baby steps in June 2008, when it hired 8 local young people to make jewelry and other beaded items. Most of the employees are working-age orphans who lack the support networks and career opportunities available to those with a family business to enter. In addition to offering sustainable, fairly paid work for these people with very limited career options, Soul of Somanya pays retail wages to local bead-makers who supply the beads used in the jewelry. This helps these bead-makers increase their profit margins and sustain their businesses.

Below I've posted pictures of the beads ("made from recycled glass...produced in open-sided, thatch-roofed huts, using traditional, labor-intensive methods" and, most importantly, of Soul of Somanya staff.
Come see us and check out our beads!

We Got a Facelift!

Our store just got a makeover! I had big plans to post pictures of the new and improved World Next Door today but was bummed to discover that I came to work equipped with a camera (to take photos of the new design), a cord (to transfer pictures from my camera to the world wide web)...but unfortunately these two pieces of equipment were not compatible. Seems I grabbed the wrong cord for my camera. :(

That said, Jency and Kim have been hard at work giving our store a facelift. It looks awesome, and we have tons of new products (especially when it comes to home goods). Come down and see us... I promise you won't be disappointed.

P.S. I'll post those pictures Monday!

Crippling Cholera

It's one of the fastest-working murderous diseases around today, and is known to kill victims within three hours if they do not receive medical care. Yet the disease is treatable and preventable, if resources are available.

Cholera is wreaking havoc in Zimbabwe, where the biggest epidemic in 15 years has already killed approximately 5,000 of the 98,000 who have been infected (that's an approximately 1 in 20 fatality rate!).
I had not heard of this outbreak until this week, when I received a letter asking for help from a charitable organization I regularly support. The disease (according to my unscientific cholera research on Wikipedia) is spread through poor sanitation as well as unclean drinking water and food. According to a CNN article from May of this year, UNICEF blaims the current epidemic on "faulty sewage systems, uncollected refuse and a lack of clean water."

The latest news from Zimbabwe is not bright for those seeking to curb the spread of the disease. According to a Reuters report filed on Wednesday, state doctors have gone on strike seeking better pay. This has paralyzed hospitals that were already struggling to deal with the economic crisis.

Here's an excerpt from that Reuters article:

(Brighton Chizhanje, president of Zimbabwe's Hospital Doctors' Association) said that any extended doctors' strike risked reversing the small gains made in reviving state hospitals.

"We are concerned about the lack of seriousness and prioritisation of the health sector. We wouldn't want to go back to last year's situation where all major hospitals were forced to shut down and turn away patients," Brighton Chizhanje, he said.

I'm not sure what will be done to rectify the situation in Zimbabwe, but I do know that I will now be paying more attention to news reports from south Africa. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Zimbabwe.

The Relationship between Fair Trade and Sustainability

I'm loving posting YouTube videos this week--there have been some good ones floating around. Here, Teresa Fabian, director of sustainability and climate change for PricewaterhouseCoopers, speaks at the Fairtrade Foundation Commercial Conference.
This is a rather ho-hum, business lecture, but she does make a few interesting points regarding fair trade. One being that Fabian believes fair trade is about to become much more mainstream.
"We are at a tipping point," she said, "and we could really see a lot more action in this area."




What do you think about what she has to say?

Ending Human Trafficking in the Middle Kingdom

Here are the facts: in the last four months, Chinese officials have freed aproximately 3,400 women and children who were caught in the web of human trafficking. At the same time, they've arrested 824 suspected traffickers.
According to The Straits Times in Singapore and Xinhua on the mainland, China's Public Security Ministry has been involved in a deliberate campaign to curb human trafficking for months. That focus will continue through December, officials say.
Some of the women freed in recent raids had been forced to work as prostitutes, according to reports. As a nation, China is only now tasting the full effects of the one-child policy that has been in place for a generation. Some believe the lack of females of a marriagable age may be playing into the country's human trafficking woes. Here's an excerpt from The Straits Times article:

The trafficking of women and children remains common in China...
Women are also trafficked to be sold to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides, due to the sex imbalance resulting from China's one-child policy which has encouraged sex-selective abortions.
Population experts say that sex-selective abortions have boosted the number of boys born here for over a generation.
Men of marriageable age currently outnumber women by more than 18 million, a number that could grow to 30 million by 2020 due to a traditional preference for Chinese families to have male heirs.

Read the Xinhua report here.

Side note: I love Twitter. It has been an invaluable tool when it comes to finding out information about fair trade, human trafficking, and networking with others who are likeminded in their pursuit of global equity.
If you're on Twitter, please check us out. We go by World_Next_Door... hoping to see you there!

Fair Trade, the Norwegian Way

This commercial aired in Norway in 2008. The text at the end reads: "Equity in the past" and then transitions to "Equity now."
Enjoy!

Monday Quote Day

"Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself ... Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom."
Milton Friedman, economist, statistician, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science

They're Home!

As everyone who glances at the news knows by now, American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling are back home in the United States, following former President Bill Clinton's 20-hour trip to North Korea. Here's a Daily News article by Michael Saul with more of the details.

They didn't have to break rocks, just eat them.
As Laura Ling and Euna Lee celebrated their freedom and thanked Bill Clinton for his rescue mission on Wednesday, harrowing details of their ordeal as North Korean prisoners emerged.
Prison food was rice peppered with rocks. They were held in isolation from each other, gripped by fear that they would be shipped to one of the infamous hard-labor gulags in Kim Jong Il's Communist state.
"The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching time of our lives," Ling said, choking back sobs just moments after the two journalists were reunited with their families.
In a classic Hollywood ending, Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, bounced off a private jet at 6:19 a.m. at the Burbank airport near Los Angeles and rushed to embrace loved ones.
As tears flowed, Lee hugged her husband and knelt down to lock her 4-year-old daughter, Hana, in a tight embrace. Ling kissed her husband. Soon after, the families applauded when Clinton emerged from the plane.
"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea. We feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard-labor camp, and, then, suddenly, we were told that we were going to a meeting," Ling said.
"When we walked in through the doors, we saw, standing before us, President Bill Clinton," she said, pausing with emotion as she placed her hand on her chest.
"We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end and now we stand here, home and free."
In June, the North Korean regime sentenced the journalists, who work for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV cable channel, to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering the country.
Kim pardoned them during Clinton's dramatic 20-hour visit.

Read the full story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/08/06/2009-08-06_ling_lee_call_captivity_a_nightmare.html#ixzz0NXhFPOLD

Freedom!

Fifty children, once forced to work as slaves on cocoa and palm plantations in the Ivory Coast, have been set free. An Interpol operation, conducted in cooperation with Ghana and Ivory Coast law enforcement, freed the children, ages 11-16, in a two-day operation earlier this summer (June 18 and 19). For me, stories like this are living proof of why fair trade works--and just how crucial the role of fair trade is in fighting human trafficking.
Here's what Interpol says about the children's work:

The children had been bought by plantation owners needing cheap labor to harvest the cocoa and palm plantations. They were discovered working under extreme conditions, forced to carry massive loads seriously jeopardizing their health... Children told investigators they would regularly work 12 hours a day and receive no salary or education. Girls were usually purchased as house maids and would work a seven-day week all year round, often in addition to their duties in the plantations.

Specially trained investigators in child exploitation and trafficking interviewed the victims with the responses providing investigators with a clearer picture of the extent of child labour in the region and potential regional networks. None of the children were aware that child labor is illegal.

...

With Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire producing around three quarters of the world’s cocoa, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of children are working illegally in the plantations across these two countries alone. The trafficking of children is often camouflaged by the cultural practice of placing young children with families of wealthier relatives to receive an education or learn a trade. In reality, they are often sold and their rights to education, health and protection denied. To continue tackling this trend, a second operation is scheduled for later this year in Ghana.

.

Here are some more links to sites with info about the freedom raids. The International Labor Rights Forum tackles the issue here, and Global Exchange delves into the relationship between fair trade and the forced labor of the cocoa business here.

Get It (for less!)

Twenty percent off and ZERO SALES TAX on any clothing purchase up to $100. It starts tomorrow!
(This is for in-store purchases only. Sorry!)

Back to School

Here in Chattanooga, teachers have started their pre-class planning and kids are loading up their backpacks and getting ready to head back to school. The summer (all too schort) is nearly over, and it got me to thinking: what does education look like around the rest of the world?

The World Bank does a great job keeping up with figures like this, and I've utilized their EdStats database to look up some relevant statistics. These include information on the country in general, as well as education-specific data. I've included the U.S. and the U.K., but am focusing on some of the countries that are top suppliers of goods here at World Next Door.
One thing I love about fair trade is that the groups we work with place a heavy emphasis on education. Without the stability and income that these companies provide, many families would not be able to send their children to school.
Ok, here are the stats. I thought that the literacy rates by country--especially when comparing female vs. male rates--are especially intriguing.

Just the Facts, Please

Just as the North Star guided escaping slaves to freedom in pre-Civil War America, so the Polaris Project desires to be a beacon of hope, leading modern-day slaves out of bondage. This group, started in 2002, is now one of the largest anti-trafficking groups in both the U.S. and Japan. I just learned about Polaris Project yesterday--they are among those urging the current administration to compile a list of products made using the labor of modern-day slaves.
Here are some facts about human trafficking from Polaris Project's website:

-Human trafficking comprises the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, based on the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation.
-Every year traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits at the expense of victimizing millions of people around the world.
-Labor trafficking is widespread in variety of situations that encompass domestic servitude and small-scale labor operations, to large-scale operations such as farms, sweatshops, and major multinational corporations.
-Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative sectors regarding the illegal trade in people, and involves any form of sexual exploitation in prostitution, pornography, bride trafficking, and the commercial sexual abuse of children. Under international law, any sexually exploited child is considered a trafficking victim, even if no force or coercion is present.
-An estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone.
-The number of US citizens trafficked within the country is even higher. An estimated 200,000 American children are at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year.

Here at World Next Door, we are passionate about stopping human trafficking. We believe, from the bottom of our heart, that fair trade is a powerful tool in the fight against modern-day slavery. Human trafficking is a lucrative industry. If we hope to rescue its victims, they must have other avenues of employment to pursue in order to support themselves and their families. That is where fair trade comes in. By offering a fair wage, up-front payment for goods, and training in both skilled labor and business, fair trade gives people the tools they need to provide for themselves in a positive way. We, the consumers, get beautiful and unique products which we can feel good about supporting.
What could be a fairer trade than that?

Something to Ponder...

“I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.”

Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (1889-1893)

Tell It To Us Straight

Four years ago, Congress told the Department of Labor to come up with "a list of goods produced by forced labor or child labor and the countries where they were made." Such a list would help consumers like you and me identify products made using modern-day slaves. After all, knowledge is power.

But, guess what? It's 2009, and that list is still MIA.
Here's what http://www.change.org/ says about the situation:

The list is designed to identify problem products (seafood, steel, textiles, etc.) and the countries where they are produced. Its release would provide consumers and shareholders with leverage to fight slavery worldwide. Empowered with this information, individuals could use their buying power to hold companies accountable and pressure them to rid their supply chains of slave labor.
In December...the William Wilberforce Reauthorization Act gave the department until the end of this year to comply with the mandate. However, due to the foot-dragging of the last adminstration's Secretary of Labor, the list is already long overdue. We must hold this administration to its promise of transparency, and demand the release of this list to the public now.

There is something we can do. Sign this petition to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and ask her to make the completion of this list a top priority.