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October 2, 2006
Ten Thousand Villages
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
In 1946 Edna Ruth Byler visited volunteers in Puerto Rico who were teaching locals how to sew in order to earn a better living. Impressed by the work of the locals, Byler brought some of their handmade products back to the U.S. to sell to family and friends, realizing a larger market would earn more for the artisans who lived in poverty. Soon Byler was selling Puerto Rican sewing, cross-stitch from Palestinian refugees and hand-carved Haitian woodenware from the trunk of her car.
Today her effort has transformed into Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit organization that buys handmade products from artisans in developing countries and markets them online and through more than 160 retail outlets across North America. They are one of the largest fair trade organizations and helped start the fair trade movement, including being a founding member of the International Fair Trade Organization.
Their name comes from a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: "India is not to be found in its few cities but in the 700,000 villages ... we have hardly ever paused to inquire if these folks get sufficient to eat and clothe themselves with." Ten Thousand Villages exists to embrace people in every village in the world and ensure that craftspeople everywhere can make a decent living from their work.
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Comments
Along with supporting free trade, all of their employees (except for managers) are volunteer. This year, Christmas shopping will be done at Ten Thousand Villages.
Posted by: abby at October 13, 2006 8:01 PM