By Maryangela Layman Román of the Catholic Herald Staff

MILWAUKEE — Looking to spend your Christmas shopping budget wisely — or perhaps more accurately — fairly?

The Southeastern Wisconsin Initiative for Fair Trade (SWIFT) is hosting the Ten Thousand Villages Holiday Sale through Dec. 24 to give shoppers an outlet for purchasing items traded fairly. The items, explained Alice Foley, coordinator of the fair trade store, are modern and traditional international crafts made by artisans in more than 30 countries. Additionally, the store has clothing, including shirts and jackets made in union stores in the United States.

The items were purchased directly from the artisans by a national group called Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit program of the Mennonite Central Committee. The artisans set the prices for their goods, explained Foley, noting that none of the pieces are the result of sweatshop labor or unfairly traded goods.

SWIFT members hope this temporary shop can become a permanent outlet for fairly traded items. For now, the group is renting a storefront at 5201 W. North Ave., for the goods. If it proves successful, SWIFT hopes to open a permanent fair trade shop, much like Plowshare Gifts in Waukesha.

Foley was one of the early organizers of the Plowshare store, begun by the Plowshare Center in 1989. It grew rapidly from a small back room venture to the thriving business today, she described, and several people began saying that they should have something like this in Milwaukee.

While it’s been a dream of theirs for years, planning for the store began in earnest a couple months ago.

An ecumenical effort, it involves several Catholics, including Michael Howden, a member of Prince of Peace Parish, Milwaukee, and coordinator of the Milwaukee Clean Clothes Campaign, part of a national effort to dissuade people from purchasing sweatshop-produced clothing. Mary Chalhoub, a pre-school teacher and member of Immaculate Conception Parish, Milwaukee, became involved after visiting a similar store in St. Louis.

“When I went in, I just knew it was something I needed to be involved in,” she said, explaining how when she returned to Milwaukee, she contacted the archdiocesan Office for World Mission who connected her with SWIFT.

Explaining she was touched by the plight of the workers in Third World countries who often work for extremely low wages under substandard working conditions, Chalhoub said, “I strongly believe everyone is a child of God and should be given the right to a living wage. Everyone should be able to take care of their family.”

Like Chalhoub, Howden said his faith is the motivating factor for his involvement in fair trade issues.

“Catholic social teaching is really the set of basic principles we’ve tried to live for many years,” he said in a telephone interview with the Catholic Herald. “We learned it about 50 years ago and it’s been a guiding principle for our lives.”

After securing the storefront about a month ago, Howden, Foley, Chalhoub and about 10 volunteers scrubbed the vacant store and set up displays awaiting the goods that were sent to them on consignment by Ten Thousand Villages.

When the goods arrived, Foley described the Christmas morning-excitement of opening the packages. They were sent two of each item, said Foley stressing supplies are limited. Among the wares are baskets, hand-carved wooden animals, including a giraffe that stands about three-feet tall, two hummingbird ornaments carved from tagua, a nut, that to the untrained eye, looks like ivory. There’s a chess set, embroidered wall hangings from India, beaded jewelry boxes from India and a piggy bank from Chile.

Prices for the items are reasonable, said Foley, noting that the union-made jackets range in price from $39 to $190 for a leather jacket.

“You’re not going to find prices like you’d find at Wal-Mart,” noted Foley, “but the items are very high quality and are reasonably priced.” She noted a sweatshirt is $17, a T-shirt about $10.

For the artisans’ goods, prices are $32 each for the tagua hummingbird ornaments, $45 for an approximately 3-foot square embroidered wall hanging from India and $6 for a child’s leather cat coin purse.

The store is entirely staffed by volunteers, said Foley, who share her interest in seeing that people are paid a just wage for their work.

“What we’re doing is living up to Catholic social teachings of justice and equality, and treating people with dignity,” said Foley of their efforts. “These (artisans) are the poorest of the poor,” she said, explaining she and the other volunteers are trying to educate others to the plight of the workers and to encourage others to recognize their dignity by purchasing their goods to help to support their livelihoods.

Volunteer Christine Devi, who said she follows the Siddha Yoga spirituality, described two ways people can assist Third World countries. She said it’s possible to be politically active to push for change or “we can support positive growth. We can expand upon what is good and help people to support themselves.”

In this venture, she and fellow SWIFT members have chosen the latter, she said, adding that she hopes shoppers realize they will give twice if they purchase the fairly traded items. Not only will they purchase a gift for a friend or relative, but they will give a lifeline to the artisan who relies on income from their goods.


Where to shop
Between now and Dec. 24, the Ten Thousand Villages Holiday Sale will be open at 5201 W. North Ave., Milwaukee. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m. On Christmas Eve, the store will be open 10 a.m. to noon. Another option for shoppers wanting to assist Third World artisans is Work of Human Hands, fair trade handicrafts offered through Catholic Relief Services. For information, see this link or call for a catalog: (800) 685-7572.

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