Globalfest Latin America

When: Friday, October 28th 6-9:30
Location: 1852 W. 19th Street, (Chicago CTA Pink Line Damen Stop)
Emcee: Tsi-Tsi-Ki Felix, lead news anchor of Telemundo Chicago

Globalfest Latin America

Globalfest is a celebration of the growing consumer support for products that guarantee social benefits to workers and the environment. So, mark your calendar and join the celebration at the Chicago Fair Trade’s annual gala to celebrate the growing consumer support for products that guarantee social benefits to workers and the environment. It will feature stories of Latin American producers of fair trade coffee, wine, chocolate, fashions and jewelry.

Entry includes appetizers, fair trade wine and sparkling juices and access to Day of the Dead exhibit from 5:30- 7:30pm.

Tickets: $50 advance, ($60 door) can be purchased at www.chicagofairtrade.org, for more info call 312-212-1760 or email njones@chicagofairtrade.org

See you at Globalfest!  CLICK HERE to buy your own ticket now!

Fair Trade Artisan Spotlight: Ganesh Himal Trading

Ganesh Himal Trading - Fair Trade From Nepal Since 1984

Ganesh Himal Trading has been working with producer groups in Nepal since 1984. By assisting in product development, purchasing and importing these artisans’ products, this organization has created mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships with low income, refugee and fair trade artisan groups in Nepal. The principles of fair trade are central to Ganesh Himal Trading’s philosophy and the way they do business.

Since 1984, Ganesh Himal Trading has supplied shops and retail customers in North America with high quality, handcrafted clothing, jewelry, textiles, and paper. Ganesh Himal Trading imports directly from small cottage industries in Nepal, including development projects working to improve the lives of Tibetan refugees and women. Also, Ganesh Himal Trading has worked with many of their producer groups for over 20 years.

Ganesh Himal Trading’s mission has always been to support work that enhances people’s lives and traditions. Ganesh Himal Trading works directly with the producers as a team, expanding each other’s talents and ideas and believes that it is rewarding to work with such skilled artisans who enjoy what they do and to know that they realize a fair return for their work.

At The Fair Trader, we are committed to bringing you beautiful goods that have been created under the principles of the Fair Trade movement. Every hand-crafted item that we carry reflects the artisan’s pride and passion for art and for the Fair Trade concept. We think that the stories of our artisans and the groups they work with are some of our most important messages. We want you to know these wonderful craftspeople as well, so we offer these pages as a way to share their stories and vision with you.

Learn more about The Fair Trader’s many different and talented artisan partners in our Artisan section of our website here: http://thefairtraderchicago.com/index-artisans.html 

Women Work for Peace

Written by Cindy Pardo, co-owner of The Fair Trade, and Chicago Fair Trade business member

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Leemah Gwobee, Liberian activist, and Tawakul Karman, Yemeni activist, have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. These remarkable women are notable examples of something we see every day in the Fair Trade movement. Women make up 75% of participants in Fair Trade, and considering the overwhelming number of women who live in poverty throughout the world, most of whom have children, that isn’t a surprising statistic.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen

Women tend to do things differently when a problem presents itself. Mangari Waanthai, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004, worked tirelessly to help people in her native Kenya by planting trees! Understanding that a healthy environment contributes to the welfare of people everywhere, she is credited with helping to plant more than 20 million trees in Kenya, which helped stabilize the environment and the economy. The three women honored by the Nobel Committee this year have used politics to significantly change their countries and the status of women.

Fair Trade is a strong instrument for improving the lives of women in the world. We three (women) owners of The Fair Trader salute the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners. We try every day to keep up our end of this work.