Blogging Fair Trade

By Hand was recently contacted by FairMail, asking if we would be interested in selling some of their fair trade cards. We had never heard of the project, which is run by a Dutch fair trade organisation, but once we had heard a bit more about it, we were really keen to get involved.

FairMail works together with NGOs on the ground in Peru who select teenagers living either on the streets or in poverty to join the FairMail scheme. The teenagers are given cameras and training in photography. The photographs taken by the teenagers are then printed on greetings cards and postcards, which are then packed by the teenagers (who are paid a fair wage for their work) before being sold to consumers in Europe. The teenagers are pictured on the back of the cards that they have taken and are given 50% of the profits of every card of their’s that is sold.

The teenagers are thus given a skill, an income and a real sense of purpose and achievement. They can use the money to fund their education, to pay for medical treatment for themselves and their families, and to improve their family’s living quarters.

A recent blog by FairMail describes how teenage photographer Juan Carlos has not just improved his life, but that of his family too:

Over the last few months Juan Carlos from FairMail Peru sold a lot of his cards. He is saving up his earnings to build an own hotel with restaurant where he wants to become the main cook. But on the short run he is not forgetting about his family. Even though he lived on the streets for a couple of years due to problems at home.

With his earnings he was able to help improve his  parents house. With an epileptic mother and a father who often already spent his days earnings in the pub before getting home the house was not in a good shape. As you can see below it was built as cheap as possible with sun dried “adobe” bricks without any concrete structures. That works fine untill it starts raining or you get an earthquake.

The house is now built up again with proper baked bricks and a concrete reinforced frame to hold the weight of the house.

With the earnings of his Christmas cards Juan Carlos hopes to be able to put in proper glass windows too and a sturdy front door. As he says himself: “Never give up on your dreams and you will achieve them in the end!”

FairMail cards are available from the various events that By Hand attends in and around Yorkshire (e.g. Leeds Pannier Market, last Saturday of every month at Granary Wharf) and will soon be available from The By Hand Fair Trade Online Shop.

For more information about FairMail, please visit www.fairmail.info or watch this YouTube video: