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Goshen College

A fair trade with friendly hands

September 18, 2016

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Mission accomplished.
Mission accomplished.

We have all seen stores, like Ten Thousand Villages, that sell artisan crafts from abroad, but on Wednesday students learned what it means to buy those handicrafts via fair trade principles, meet some of the artists that make the crafts, and try their hand at making some crafts themselves.

The organization Manos Amigas (Friendly Hands) distributes the products of Peruvian artisans in foreign markets.  Their largest customer is Ten Thousand Villages.  In a presentation they described their certification by the World Free Trade Organization, which means they comply with 10 principles in their day-to-day work to improve the lives of Peruvian artisans and their families.   The 10 principles are:

  1. Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers
  2. Transparency and Accountability
  3. Fair Trading Practices
  4. Payment of a Fair Price
  5. Ensuring no Child Labor and Forced Labor
  6. Commitment to Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Women’s Economic Empowerment and Freedom of Association
  7. Ensuring Good Working Conditions
  8. Providing Capacity Building
  9. Promoting Fair Trade
  10. Respect for the Environment

While they work with a variety of artisans from many locations in Peru, it was a local workshop in a low-income neighborhood of Lima where we got to see about a half-dozen artisans at work making ceramics.  After viewing the different stages of their work, they turned the tables around and had our students make and paint ceramic pieces.

On Monday Maddie was totally surprised with her birthday cake, …
… and she was very intense when she made her birthday wish.
Manos Amiga explained the 10 principles of Fair Trade and how they put those into practice.
Shopping at the Manos Amiga office.
Where ceramic pieces are dried and fired.
A box of pieces drying before being painted.
Workers apply paint to the figures.
We were impressed how fine they can paint the small figures.
Maria displays a final product.
Now the students’ get a turn.
Step 1: use molds to press clay into figures.
Lane is pleased with the impression his mold made.
Getting a good figure requires starting with the right amount of clay in the mold.
Art major John is successful.
Alex with Santa. A mold has be replaced after 200 uses.
Achieng was inspired to create her own piece.
On the shelves behind Tim and Brad are more molds.
Students were then given dried pieces for painting.
Riley did an impressive job of finely painting her piece.
Lunch included “papas rellenas,” mashed potatoes stuffed with ground beef in sauce.
It took artist Juan Carlos Diaz Huicho 2 weeks to create this large piece.
Mission accomplished.
We were impressed with how well the pieces turned out for the students.
Tim made a Peruvian Batmobile.
The students pose with their masterpieces and the master teachers.