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| Arlene and her grandson are doing their Christmas shopping. |
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| Nan admired some of the scarves. |
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| Cashiers and packers: Lana, Ruth, Bonnie, Gladys, Barb, Lorna and June were kept very busy. |
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| It was also Apple Day for the Scouting movement. |
For one day St. Mark’s United Church Mission and Outreach Committee offers the Port Hawkesbury community an opportunity to make a difference by shopping fair trade. Shoppers will discover hundreds of handcrafted home décor items, musical instruments, ornaments, toys and jewellery made by skilled artisans in more than 30 Developing countries.
The hand made products featured in this sale are offered through Ten Thousand Villages. Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to artisans around the world by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. All proceeds from the Port Hawkesbury Festival Sale benefit Ten Thousand Villages artisan partners. In addition to over 100 Festival Sales held this past year in communities from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, Ten Thousand Villages also operates 49 stores across Canada.
Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit, fair trade organization and a program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). MCC is the relief, service and peace agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ.
Ten Thousand Villages is a marketing organization that sells handicrafts from “Third World” countries through its network of 50 stores in Canada, 115 in the US, and through 300 annual Festival Sales in Canada (100+) and the US (200+).
2. Where does everything come from and who made it?
Products sold by Ten Thousand Villages come from more than 30 countries around the world, countries considered to be “Third World” or “underdeveloped”.
Ten Thousand Villages talks with the artisans themselves. They also talk with other organizations that are working in that country. We also learn what other persons in the community earn – farm workers, construction workers, teachers, etc. It is our goal that a person’s income enables her/him to pay for food, clothing, housing, children’s education and medical care.
4. How much money does Ten Thousand Villages send back to the artisan?
None! Before placing an order, Ten Thousand Villages establishes what the artisan group considers to be a fair price for the item.
When placing the order, half of the purchase price is sent with the order. This allows artisans to purchase the raw materials needed and to pay wages during production.
Upon completion of the order, the remainder of the purchase price is paid before the order leaves the country. Orders are paid in full before they arrive in our warehouse.
5. How do we find these artisans and products?
Ten Thousand Villages is a program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC www.mcc.org), a relief and development organization with contacts in 50 countries around the world.
More than 500 MCC workers live and work in 40 developing countries. In many cases these MCC’ers introduce us to artisans. Sometimes contacts come through other church groups or through the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT www.ifat.org). IFAT is a 200-member fair trade organization to which Ten Thousand Villages belongs.
Regular visits and financial statements help us to ensure accountability. We do not ask any of the groups we buy from to sell exclusively to us, nor do we have exclusive contracts on any products.
Ten Thousand Villages
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What is Ten Thousand Villages?
It is a program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a relief and development organization working around the world. Ten Thousand Villages has its roots in the work begun by Edna Ruth Byler in 1946.
2. Where does everything come from and who made it?
Products sold by Ten Thousand Villages come from more than 30 countries around the world, countries considered to be “Third World” or “underdeveloped”.
We buy from more than 120 different groups of artisans and reach thousands of individual people. About 70% of the artisans are single mothers. Some artisan groups also seek to employ persons with physical disabilities.
Ten Thousand Villages intentionally looks to work with people who are unemployed or severely under-employed. Products sold by Ten Thousand Villages do not come from large factories but are made in small group settings or in homes where artisans can also manage household responsibilities or farm work.
We are concerned that the environment in which our artisans work is clean and healthy and materials used for production are not harmful to the artisan or the environment
3. How is a “fair wage” determined?
Ten Thousand Villages talks with the artisans themselves. They also talk with other organizations that are working in that country. We also learn what other persons in the community earn – farm workers, construction workers, teachers, etc. It is our goal that a person’s income enables her/him to pay for food, clothing, housing, children’s education and medical care.
4. How much money does Ten Thousand Villages send back to the artisan?
When placing the order, half of the purchase price is sent with the order. This allows artisans to purchase the raw materials needed and to pay wages during production.
Upon completion of the order, the remainder of the purchase price is paid before the order leaves the country. Orders are paid in full before they arrive in our warehouse.
5. How do we find these artisans and products?
Ten Thousand Villages is a program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC www.mcc.org), a relief and development organization with contacts in 50 countries around the world.
More than 500 MCC workers live and work in 40 developing countries. In many cases these MCC’ers introduce us to artisans. Sometimes contacts come through other church groups or through the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT www.ifat.org). IFAT is a 200-member fair trade organization to which Ten Thousand Villages belongs.
Regular visits and financial statements help us to ensure accountability. We do not ask any of the groups we buy from to sell exclusively to us, nor do we have exclusive contracts on any products.
We continually focus on trading with communities with the greatest needs.
