Last night I had the fun of celebrating the staff and volunteers of SERRV, a Fair Trade Organization featured in
the "fair trade histories" chapter of my book. SERRV was founded 60 years ago and has been instrumental in creating the Fair Trade movement we know today. The anniversary party the SERRV folks generously hosted last night at their New Windsor, Maryland facilities was a time to reflect on the principles that have made SERRV so successful. It was also a chance to toast the people—-many of whom I am proud to call friends--who infuse the organization with great talent and persistent commitment to the Fair Trade values.
SERRV International started as a program of a faith-based organization, the Church of the Brethren, and then became independent in 1999. Its name was originally an acronym for Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocation, reflecting its start as an income generation project through the sale of wooden cuckoo clocks carved by refugees in Germany. Across the years
SERRV has worked to eradicate poverty through direct connections with low-income artisans and farmers in 35 countries. The name is now less an acronym and more an ethos: to SERRV.
Giséle Fleurant, Executive Director of Comite Artisanal Haitien, was on hand at the party to thank SERRV for its long-standing commitment. She noted that across the years and str
uggles the people of Haiti have faced, SERRV has been a steadfast customer of products such as
hand-hammered and cut recycled oil drums (The photo of me at the SERRV store has some Haitian artwork in the background). Mike Muchilwa, a co-founder of
Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa, also spoke passionately and personally about how SERRV enables often-exploited artisans like the carvers of
Nyabigena Soapstone cooperative in Kenya to access markets on fair terms that respect the dignity of the producers and invest back in their home communities.
Recently SERRV re-branded itself, dropping “international” from its name and fashioning a new logo and minimalist look for its catalog. Despite these recent enhancements, SERRV’s values haven’t changed much along the way. It simply and humbly approaches producers as partners, seeking joint solutions to the challenges of poverty. It offers ideas for production techniques, makes grants of financial resources, and markets products through direct sales, the internet and catalogs. With my day job at
CRS, I’m been fortunate to be alongside SERRV staff in Ghana and Madagascar, and I have witnessed them as creative, caring, no-nonsense professionals committed to empowering communities.
Paul Myers, President of the
World Fair Trade Organization, pointed out in his remarks that the long-standing practices of SERRV have paved the way for more mainstream companies such as Cadbury in the United Kingdom to enter the Fair Trade marketplace. If it had not been for the pioneers of organizations such as SERRV, the Fair Trade market would not have grown to more than a $1.5 billion dollars here in the States with 5 billion producers benefiting from increased income and expanded opportunities world wide.
Paul noted that the Fair Trade movement was now on the cusp of a new era. Many gathered nodded their gray hairs (mine included!) in agreement, but I don’t think many of us thought that the Fair Trade movement is going to coast easily into such a new period. There are many challenges facing the movement-- from organizational conflicts, to exclusionary practices among producers, to consumer confusion. Like any movement we are filled with fallible human beings. With 60 years experience we are finding that our shortcomings can slow us down at best and do damage at worst.
What gives me hope for the future is a conversation I had with a woman named Sally Keller. Over post-party breakfast, Sally related to me how a personal invitation to become more deeply involved in SERRV led her to a life of professional and volunteer Fair Trade service. She operates a store,
Global Village Crafts, in her Utah and travels with her husband to countries such as Peru and Nepal to do development work. She does it not to get rich or travel to “exotic places.” Fair Trade makes sense to Sally. She has witnessed the difference it makes to the people she meets along the way. She, as a SERRV volunteer, is a fine example of a movement that works in direct, meaningful ways to transform lives and communities.
As long as folks like Sally are signed up for another 60 years, so am I.
