FAIR TRADE & FRIENDS BAZAAR

People rarely go shopping knowing their purchases will have
a positive impact toward eliminating poverty here in Racine as well as in
developing countries.  Racine's first ever Fair Trade and Friends Bazaar
will provide shoppers with that opportunity. The event will be held in the
commons area outside Boston Store at Regency Mall, 5538 Durand
Avenue, on Saturday, October 15th, from 10am to 4pm.  Nearly a dozen fair trade retailers and
wholesalers will be offering goods from around the world.  In addition,
the programs of five non-profits will benefit from the sale of locally created
crafts.  Celtic Strings will provide
musical entertainment.

Many people are confused about the difference between free
trade, which refers to commerce carried out without restrictions such as import
duties, tariffs, and trade quotas, and fair trade which refers to a business
model based on paying producers, farmers, and artisans a fair price for their
goods, ensuring that women and children are not exploited, and creating
sustainable environments.  Readers wanting to know more about fair trade
can visit the website of the Fair Trade Federation, fairtradefederation.org. 
Above all, fair trade is not a charity.  Artisans and farmers don't want a
handout.  They want access to markets where they can work themselves out
of poverty.  Shopping fair trade saves lives, one purchase at a
time. 

The event is jointly sponsored by Mayaworks and the HOPES
Center of Racine.  MayaWorks, which has promoted fair trade in many local
churches, sells items handmade from beautiful Guatemalan textiles.  The
HOPES Center, operated by the Racine Dominican Sisters, includes Just Trade, a
fair trade gift store, and Cup of Hope, a coffee house selling fair trade
coffee and chocolate. Other fair trade vendors selling at the bazaar
include two Milwaukee specialty shops, Fair Trade for All  and Four Corners of the World, which carry a
wide variety of jewelry, artisans crafts, gifts, clothing and packaged foods;
Glad Tidings which sells olive wood nativities, ornaments, Christian symbols,
serving items and jewelry produced by artisans in Amman, Jordan; Greenola which
works with women entrepreneurs in Bolivia and emerging artists in Chicago to
produce stylish organic clothing, jewelry and accessories; Jinja Jewelry which
offers eclectic handcrafted jewelry fashioned from natural materials, such as
horn and paper beads rolled from Obama campaign literature, made by formerly
unemployed people of Uganda; Minga Fair Trade Imports, a wholesaler selling
clothing, carvings, toys, and original artwork from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and
Columbia; and SERRV which began in 1949 as a way to help European refugees
recover from WWII and today works with artisans in more than thirty-five
countries.

Local crafters will also be on hand offering
handmade items in support of the following charities:  Friendship Bridge volunteers will sell
“swittens," mittens made from recycled wool sweaters to support
microcredit loan and educational programs in Guatemala;  HALO volunteers will sell designer pillow
cases to support the programs of Racine's Homeless Assistance Leadership
Organization;  Knitters from St Patrick's
church will support Heifer International’s efforts to end hunger and poverty by
selling their knit creations;  Coffee,
tea, and chocolate themed mini-quilts made by local artists form a silent
auction fundraiser for the HOPE Center's counseling program; and local jewelers
and needle workers will showcase their creation in support of the Women’s
Resource Center's services to local victims of domestic violence and sexual
assault.