This is What Fair Trade Looks Like: A Year into the Pandemic

The latest from our artisan partners

In 2020, we shared stories of our artisan partners from around the world, and how they are faring during this difficult time. We got in touch with many of them in the new year, and wanted to share their updates. Because of COVID-19, they have all shifted the way they do business. But they remain dedicated to maintaining long term-relationships built on mutual respect and hope for the future. Choosing to purchase fair trade NOW is a way of keeping a connection to the people who make the products that we sell. You are part of the story.

Fair trade businesses are fully transparent, and in the spirit of this transparency we wanted to share the good and sometimes unpleasant realities. The fact that our partners are willing to share this is above and beyond most mass-produced, conventional brands will do. While many big brands failed to provide workers with PPE, cut worker pay, canceled factory orders, and continued to give CEO’s bonuses, fair trade businesses acted as a safety net in a time of crisis. Most artisans have already been paid up front, and most will still get paid through this pandemic.

Our friends in Ghana at Global Mamas mostly create apparel, which is something that we have all been buying less of. But we are all maintaining our commitment! “We are creative, resilient, and determined to persevere. We are also incredibly grateful for partners who have the capacity to offer our products to their communities.”

We have also been keeping these words in mind from our friends at Ganesh Himal Trading, our partners in Nepal who make beautiful felted items we all love: “This crisis will take clarity, patience and perseverance to move through but the ultimate story has not yet been written for how it will play out and we can all play a part in writing the chapters that mean the most to us.”

Here are some recent stories from around the world:

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Malia Designs in Cambodia: 

• All three producer groups pivoted to making face masks in the early months of the pandemic which carried them all through those initial dark days and months. They continue to produce and sell face masks (like the “Vote” mask pictured here) and are happy to report that  production has begun on the spring 2021 line of products.
• Another bright spot: one producer transformed their retail space into a farm-to-table cafe during the pandemic, providing an outlet for a farming project they had been building up for years, which is very exciting.
• The producers have experienced setbacks, however. One had to close her retail location and move to a smaller, more economical space in one of the main markets. She had occupied the shop for a very long time and tried hard to keep it but just couldn’t afford to stay any longer. Everyone at Malia Designs is very hopeful for the future and will continue to do all they can to support the artisan partners and the wonderful work that they do.

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Global Mamas in Ghana:

• Global sales over the past year were significantly impacted. Thanks to mask making and grants, all staff was able to remain employed which they are extremely proud of. However, to avoid layoffs the entire team had pay cuts for a chunk of the year. Most are now back at full pay, bracing for another uphill climb this year.
• Spring 2021 sales with wholesale partners in Europe have already been hit hard due to COVID shutdowns and just in the past week. COVID is now also on the rise in Ghana with strains of the newer fast moving virus officially identified in country (COVID numbers had been holding steady up until recently).
• The team has applied for more grants, to help continue to pay stuff and keep the Mamas working despite a decline in sales. The grant projects range from developing new product lines, to COVID aid which will help the technological side of our operations, to a program in which they conduct training and capacity building workshops for small youth and women led enterprises around Ghana.
• Global Mamas is creative, resilient, and determined to persevere. They are also incredibly grateful for wholesale partners who have the capacity to offer our products to their communities this spring.

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Ganesh Himal Trading in Nepal:

Co-owner Denise Attwood wrote an update about one of Ganesh Himal’s longest standing producer partners, Association for Craft Producers (ACP).

With the lockdown due to Covid-19 and the subsequent loss of sales, ACP’s situation is dire and they have reached out for help. There is no PPP loan in Nepal nor are there government resources for those who have lost their employment. ACP’s expenses for salaries and benefits alone, comes to $33,000/month so you can see that they will need a lot to cover the producers’ wages in the coming months. With sales at 40% less than previous years and orders to make they need capital to survive while they learn how to adapt. 

In early July, the Conscious Connections Foundation (Ganesh Himal’s nonprofit arm) was thrilled to be able to provide a $25,000 grant for ACP’s operating expenses but they need much more than that and so we are looking to raise at least $25,000 more on their behalf. Because CCF is an all-volunteer run non-profit with grants to cover bank and administrative fees, we can ensure that 100% of your donations for this incredible organization will go directly to ACP. My husband, Ric, and I will personally match the first $2500 of donations made to assist ACP. *The latest: In total CCF was able to provide $40,000 in COVID relief to ACP!

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Passion Lilie in India:

• The team of stitchers in Tirupur are doing well. COVID cases are very low there, and they have been moving forward with building a new factory and actually moved into the new space in January, which has been a bit hectic in the midst of producing the spring line. This was in the works long before COVID!
• Our block printers are working on raising the flooring, because they have been suffering with flooding during the monsoon season. This year it was especially bad, which put delays on production. Raising the floors should help with the flooding and production flow.

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SERRV in various countries: 

Everyone has felt the impact of a global pandemic, racial and political unrest, and natural disasters. But artisan partners all over the world faced even greater challenges, struggling with healthcare and with feeding their families as unemployment skyrocketed due to COVID-19. 

• SERRV sold nearly 500,000 global handcrafts and food items in 2020. With every item shipped out of the warehouse, SERRV was able to order a new item, bringing employment to those with few options. 
• With income from your purchases, SERRV was able to keep order commitments to artisans and farmers around the world. They were immensely grateful since many retailers cancelled or reduced orders in 2020.
• Artisans and farmers were able to purchase food, personal protective equipment, and other needed supplies from a special COVID-19 relief fund. Donations went to 35 partner groups in 20 countries. 

“Bali is very quiet…It makes us panic because there are no orders at all…Finally, the good news came; there was an order from SERRV! We called the craftsmen and prayed together at the office, thank God, thank you SERRV.” –Artisans with Mitra Bali in Indonesia

“Thank you so much for the donation! It will enable us to buy some masks and sanitizers for the artisans.” –Nyabigena, Kenya

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Bright Endeavors in Chicago: 

The pandemic brought with it new state and city-wide restrictions that caused Bright Endeavors to rethink safety while the candle making company was closed for 4 months. “The goal is to keep everyone safe by wearing masks, conducting temperature checks, implementing more virtual training, and ensuring spatial distancing measures while “maintaining the integrity of the program,” says Director of Workforce Development, Gabrielle Caverl-McNeal.

Marchelle, a current Production Assistant, said that even with the increased safety measures, the job has not changed her outlook.

“We pretty much try to keep 6 feet apart, if we’re in a group talking we all have our masks on and we keep our hands clean,” said Marchelle, who is 22 years old and parenting her 4-month-old daughter. “I love this job, it’s like a second family.”

A difficult but important decision: they had to scale down the program by reducing the number of moms enrolled and the length of our program, due to guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control. Since fewer participants are working at one time, the program also shortened from 16 weeks to 12 weeks. This change actually allowed an increase the amount of young moms who can participate. They lose a little bit of buffer time for finding a job post-graduation from the program, but this means they start working with employment specialists sooner. The increased civil unrest and violence in Chicagoland over the past several months has impacted attendance and retention for moms in Job Training. Some are unable to begin the program after orientation or unable to finish because of domestic or gun violence impacting their families.

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JOYN in India: 

Founder Mel Murray writes:

By God’s grace we are thankful for the best year we have ever had as a company. With some strategic partnerships and your help, we have been able to keep more people employed than we have ever been able to do. 

We have also been able to grow the number of jobs exponentially this year, which is our mission to create redemptive work opportunities for people who need them. We consider it such a gift to continue to grow our mission, and some of you as partners have been with us for a long time. 

In a few months, we celebrate our 10th anniversary, and we couldn’t be more grateful for your partnerships. In a global pandemic, I can’t think of a more opportune time to take risks and be bold with our mission. We encourage you to stay with us and behind us as we forge ahead this year with boldness to create more dignified, ethical, and redemptive jobs for our friends in our community in North India.

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Previous news reported in 2020:

Global Mamas:

• Shifted their employees to making face masks for their employees, families, and surrounding community and are asking if anyone is interested in wholesale orders of face masks.
• They are also holding fundraisers on Facebook to help pay their employees after massive cancelled orders (Facebook fundraiser)
• During the 2014-2016 Ebola Epidemic they borrowed money to finance operations to prevent losses to the Mamas. As they are still repaying this debt they are unable to borrow additional funds without putting the future of Global Mamas at risk.
• Their 76 person employee team (producers, quality control staff, production managers, Ghana store staff, US wholesale office staff, etc.) has committed in solidarity to a pay cut to help share the burden of the financial losses. Many of the Mamas are independent business owners and rely on global demand for their products, which is dramatically lower for the time being. They will make interest free loans available as they are able.

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Malia Designs: 

• In Cambodia: grappling with how to keep their teams and families safe and financially afloat; many makers are polio survivors and for them to contract COVID19 would be devastating.
• In USA: getting ready to receive their large spring shipment; usually a joyful and busy time fulfilling all of the spring purchase orders, but with the majority of their retail partners closed, that’s not the case this season.
• Artisans were paid deposits long-ago, but Malia is now scraping together the rest of the balances for their orders, with no clear way forward.

 

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Fair Anita:

• Cambodia: In the main workshop in Phnom Penh, they’ve split their working teams into small groups, working from home where possible.  In their workshop in rural Cambodia, all artisans have been mandated to stay home, and they have delivered sewing machines so artisans can continue to work from home.  With orders down from their other wholesale partners, they’re struggling to manage cash-flow, ensuring they’re still able to pay all artisans during the quarantine. They have far more costs right now, but dramatically less production and income. Fair Anita is paying 100% upfront (as per usual) to assist with this cash flow issue. 
• India: Delhi and most of the other states in India are on lock down, mandated by the government. All workshops, markets, and facilities are closed, so no production is happening, apart from a small amount that’s able to happen at home.  Some artisans have transitioned to making masks: let us know if you’re interested in buying bulk supply.
• Chile: coronavirus is advancing quite rapidly in Chile, and the government has put a mandatory curfew and quarantine in place.  The artisan partners we work with in Chile already work from home, so they’re glad to be able to continue their fair trade work during times of quarantine.
• Peru: On March 16th, the President of Peru enacted a mandatory 15-day quarantine, with no flights in or out of the country, and no local transportation allowed, either. People are allowed to walk to the pharmacy, food market, or bank when using a mask and carrying the proper ID.  If you’re caught disobeying, you will be jailed or killed, especially if caught outside after curfew (8pm-5am). I (Joy) was, unfortunately, caught in this quarantine, so I’m experiencing the effects of COVID-19 from Chimbote, Peru. Most people in this community barely have enough money to sustain their expenses for 3 days, let alone 15, so people are really suffering without access to food, many having no option but to steal to feed their families.  As our artisan partners here are the most recent to have fully-sustainable income with Fair Anita (and therefore don’t have savings as other artisan partners are taught to do), we have stepped in to provide additional income to our partners in Chimbote. We’re providing advances to artisan payments to support the women and their children (with disabilities, who need their life-saving medication) during this difficult time.

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Venture Imports:

• Coronavirus has hit Kenya, too. Christine [office manager] tells me that their way of business has changed a lot. The formal sector has shut down and regional movement is controlled. Lots of people are approaching Christine looking for work. And I’m (Jen) in a position of possibly having to reduce our orders from Kenya due to the effects of coronavirus on our customers. I’m really trying to make sure our partners don’t take the brunt of it.

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SERRV:

• We’re keeping in touch with our artisan partners. We believe they remain safe at this time, but are asking for regular updates. Recently, more of their governments have closed their borders and/or are quarantining communities. These nearly 8,000 artisan and farmer partners are concerned for both themselves and also for us here at SERRV and in the United States. But they also remain optimistic, and hope you will be able to continue to support them through this challenging time.

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Joyn:

•  Their office staff are working remotely during this time and will be having their artisans stay home. Schools and workplaces are shut down in India, just as they are in the States. Their biggest concern is for their community’s safety and they will do our part to follow the recommendations set forth by the CDC.

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Ganesh Himal Trading:

• Received a big shipment of goods on March 11; we are fully stocked and the producers just got a big payment. They have been in touch with all of their producer groups to explain the situation and help them understand that we will try our hardest to get them their normal orders for May but that they should be aware that we may not be able to due to store closures and quarantines.
• Their producers receive orders and payments every two months so none of them are in a dire situation, at present, which is good. Ganesh Himal will try hard to provide them all with good orders in May and they know that.
• Nepal: The government has closed the borders, is no longer issuing tourist visas and has canceled all mountain climbing expeditions. They are also in the process of closing schools and trying to understand social distancing. For a country that is highly dependent on tourism this is devastating.

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Passion Lilie:

• Their workshops were shut down, but they will all receive full pay during the shutdown.

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UPAVIM Crafts:

• Their productions are shut down in Guatemala except for their bakery and the board is committed to paying their artisans.

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Bright Endeavors: 

• Bright Endeavors, a social enterprise located in Chicago, is staying grounded in their mission to surround young moms with what they need. They are maintaining safe social distancing practices by allowing only limited staff at their facility, with staggered schedules. Bright Endeavors is continuing to pay  staff and participants during this time. They want to remind us that candles can create a sense off calm, grounding us in comfort while at home and inspiring relaxation or creativity.