Helping Artisan Cooperatives Get Their Start

At a book discussion at the Ten Thousand Villages in Pasadena, California recently, I was asked a familiar question along the lines of, "How do you help craftswomen enter the Fair Trade market?" Many folks, whether volunteers with groups like Peace Corps or Catholic Relief Services or backpackers who stay in a community awhile, develop close bounds with a community and want to help them use their talents and skills to create products under Fair Trade terms.  The Fair Trade skin care company Anti-Body is an example of committed entrepreneurs working with their partners in Africa to develop products and get them to market.

Inspired their example and the history of Villages founder, Edna Ruth Byler, I like to encourage these new enterprises, but with a clear eye to the challenges of the handcraft market.  Luckily there are many professionals who do product and cooperative development for a living.  I'm sharing a recent announcement from Aid to Artisans about a training available this summer to help producers and importers develop market readiness.  

And while we are talking about building capacity, on my to-do list is to reach out to Oikocredit a leader of microfinance and a leader in Fair Finance.  If you are interested in borrowing money under fair terms to work with producers you might want to research the Oikocredit requirements and criteria. 

I hope these two leads help those helping producers become Fair Traders!