Our next Guest Blogger is Megy Karydes. Megy is the founder of World Shoppe , a fair trade jewelry and women’s accessories importing business that works with artisans in South Africa. World Shoppe is a proud and active member of the Fair Trade Federation and Megy was also a founding board member of Chicago Fair Trade, working to promote fair trade in her hometown.

After being invited to visit South Africa by the South African Consulate, I knew my life would change. After working to support fair trade as an e-boutique for the past 6 years, this was my opportunity to work directly with artisans which was the initial goal when I launched World Shoppe (www.World-Shoppe.com) six years ago.

I was among 19 international delegates who were invited to visit the country in the hopes that we would meet artisans and form a working relationship by importing their handmade items to our respective countries. Only 5 were from the United States and each of us came to the trip with different backgrounds, experience and interests.

I’ve been involved in the fair trade movement for over a decade. I began volunteering at a fair trade shop near my home when I first learned what fair trade was all about and how it allowed women to have a voice and contribute to their family and communities. Since then, I launched by e-boutique to offer fashionable and affordable fair trade jewelry, gifts and home accessories to socially-conscious consumers. But one of my earliest goals was to work directly with artisans to make the most impact and that was one of the reasons the trip to South Africa was so important to me.

It was during this trip that I met Carol, an amazingly talented artist who employs 18 artisans in the Western Cape province. The group produces copper and brass jewelry featuring semi-precious gemstones such as hematite, onyx, jade, carnelian and tiger’s eye. As soon as I saw the pieces, I knew we would be working together. The pieces were nothing like I had seen in the United States. They were bold, high-quality and resembled jewelry I have seen in artsy galleries, shops I frequent when looking for unique gifts. And, more importantly, they were produced using fair trade principles.

Within a week of returning to the United States, I had already photographed the samples I had purchased and sent them to some retailer friends for their opinion. All of them loved the pieces. I quickly put together an order and became a wholesaler. I booked my first trade show, put together a wholesale price list and began sharing the news with retailers.

Retailers across the country are quickly responding to consumers seeking out more fair trade items by stocking more fair trade in their shops. It’s been particularly exciting and rewarding to me because I share my successes with my artisans. When we’re featured in a national magazine article, I send them a copy of the article. When I get a new retailer customer, I email them to let them know. When a customer shares a picture of her wearing one of their designs, I share it with them, too. It’s important to me that we remember the reason we support fair trade – it’s because of the people. Yes, we need to have a profitable and sustainable business in order to succeed and employ more artisans, but the fact of the matter is that what gets me up in the morning is knowing that what I’m doing every day is making a difference.

According to the World Bank, an estimated 2.7 billion people in the world exist on less than $2 a day. That’s unnecessary.   It is my hope that one day we can all live with dignity and respect for one another. I feel honored and privileged to be working with my artisan partners and am looking forward to working with more women in the coming months. I hope you’ll join me for the journey!

Sincerely,

Megy Karydes, Founder

World Shoppe www.World-Shoppe.com

www.Facebook.com/worldshoppe

www.twitter.com/worldshoppe

For more information on World Shoppe, head over to their site. They have beautiful products that help out wonderful global causes. Keep checking back for more updates on artisans, sustainability and fair-trade.

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♥Mayu♥

Our next Guest Blogger is Naomi from MayaWorks. MayaWorks markets the work of Maya artisans who otherwise have no outlet for their handiwork. As a proud member of the Fair Trade Federation, MayaWorks pays artisans at prices they set, provides technical assistance and educational opportunities and meets other Fair Trade criteria. We hope you enjoy Naomi and Vincenta’s story as much as we do!

The Power of Fair Trade: MayaWorks Helps indigenous Artisans Help Themselves

Vicenta is a MayaWorks artisan from the small mountain village of Xetonox (pronounced She-toe-nosh), in Técpan Guatemala. She is a 57 years old and has endured a very difficult life.  Her parents were poor indigenous Maya farmers who could not send her to school past the third grade where she learned to read and write. Like many women in Guatemala, Vicenta is caring for a large family: 8 children, 3 of which are boys and 5 who are girls.

Vicenta has been working for MayaWorks for 12 years. A fiercely adventurous woman, Vicenta created the Xetonox group with her daughter Marcela and has been able to secure an income largely supported by the sale of her handicrafts. She is very happy to have the opportunity to work from home and care for her children instead of spending long days in the field harvesting crops. The elaboration of her products has been her main source of revenue, since it has allowed her to support her children to continue studying and to cover their primary necessities.

Vicenta has received capacity building trainings from MayaWorks so that she has learned to weave 36” width fabric, and creates a number of products including wine bags, kitchen towels and aprons, and fabric by the yard. With the trainings that she has received, she has been able to contribute to her family and to her community.  The technical trainings have helped her improve her work and the quality of her products.

In addition to the work provided by sales of handicrafts, she also receive small microcredit loans from MayaWorks. With her husband, Vicenta cultivates potatoes that she sells locally. The sales from these crops provided income to purchase a used car to transport supplies and tools to the field and to transport her crop to the market.

Vicenta is proud of what she has been able to achieve, especially in a country like Guatemala where being and indigenous woman can have its challenges. Vicenta has greatly benefited from the work that MayaWorks has provided her. It has provided economic development that has benefited not only her family but also her weaving group and her community.

For more information on MayWorks head over to their site. They have beautiful products that help out wonderful global causes. Check back next week for another World’s Working Women posting and don’t forget to sign up for our Ruffle Scarf Giveaway! Keep checking back for more updates on artisans, sustainability and fair-trade.

Follow us via Twitter@shopmayu, our blog or Facebook!

Mayu is kicking off this week with a Guest Blogger series we are really excited about. Each week, through the month of April, we are profiling women artisans abroad. We have reached out to some incredible friends and asked them to share their experiences working with women artisans and producers. The stories that came back are amazing and we hope you find them just as heartwarming and inspiring.

Our first Guest Blogger is Holly from Fair Earth. Fair Earth  is a socially conscious and earth-friendly company that produces and markets high quality fair trade merchandise from East Africa. Fair Earth features beautiful products, from baskets to stationary, so please be sure to check out their site and support the artisans. We hope you enjoy Holly and Joyce’s story as much as we do!

Meet Joyce – One of our paper beaders

One of my favorite parts of the time I spend in Uganda working on product development is visiting the homes of our artisans.

Each time I visit I am flooded with a wealth of love, generosity, SPIRIT, and ALIVENESS that makes my heart glow.

A few days ago I visited Joyce and her three sons – Paul, Mark, and Solomon. Joyce is one of Fair Earth’s paper beaders. Incidentally, we are neighbors in Uganda, as their home is just a short walk from where I stay in Luzira.

I was greeted warmly and served a delicious lunch of matoke, pumpkin, rice, and soup upon arriving. I immediately noticed the incredibly creative Christmas decorations in their home – Paul, Joyce’s eldest son, had cut his old school papers into triangular shapes and strung them along the ceiling to create a festive holiday atmosphere. The breeze coming through the door made the papers flutter and cast sparkling shadows throughout the room – it was absolutely delightful.

We spent the afternoon looking through photos, exchanging stories, and then working on new products.

“My mom is a good mom,” Paul told me proudly as we looked through their family photo album. “She takes very good care of us.”

All three boys adore their mom. I gave Joyce some glass beads for her to use in supplementing her paper bead designs, and immediately the boys were looking for colors that would compliment their mother’s dress.

As the stories kept coming, I learned more about their love and respect for her—it is based upon a very real knowledge of how hard their mom works to put them through school. Joyce did not get an education, which means her opportunities for employment are limited. Yet she has worked tirelessly so that her children will have more opportunities than she does.

Her pathway to her current work – making beads from recycled newspapers and magazines – has not been easy. She worked for a year and a half with NO PAY for the current mayor of Uganda cleaning up the streets of developing neighborhoods. I was heart-broken by the story. With no money for transport, she would leave home before the sun rose to walk hours to their work destination, pushing forward upon the promise of pending money, which never came. After becoming weak and sickly from long days of work with no food, Joyce’s mom told her she would die if she continued and taught her how to make paper beads as an alternative. That was eight years ago. I asked her if she took any action to try to get the money she was promised, and she replied, “there is nothing we can do. We are poor and uneducated. We have no power over the government. We would maybe have a voice if we had a lawyer, but we have no money for lawyers. So we just move on.”

These stories of injustice fill me with frustration and ANGER. However, I am also inspired and hopeful to be a part of a fair trade movement which puts people FIRST – a movement where respect, fairness, and integrity take precedence, and where success NEVER comes at the expense of another’s exploitation.

I am also happy to be working with Joyce, and delighted to see the joy and hope not only in her face, but also in the faces of her children!

Thanks for your support,

Sincerely,

Holly Elzinga

Don’t forget to sign up for our Ruffle Scarf Giveaway! Keep checking back for more updates on artisans, sustainability and fair-trade.

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Machu Picchu

The bright side? The railway was originally expected to reopen in mid-April, but due to improvements in weather, may open earlier! This is excellent news for the residents of Lima and Cuzco, the capital of the province where the Inca site is located. Without the influx of tourists to this area, many artisans and businesses are without work. The livelihood of local artisans, like those of Mayu, depend on people visiting the ruins and purchasing goods and services in the surrounding area.

Aguas Calientes-January

A slated April 1st opening would be fantastic news for our friends in Peru as well as the millions of tourists who make the trip to Cuzco each year. Fingers crossed for good weather and speedy recovery efforts!

For more updates on Peru, check back to Mayu or follow our friend Stuart at En Peru.

One of the most popular recipes with the Chiquian’s is pan con queso. Can we imagine a better combination?! Bread and cheese may evoke thoughts of a Parisian cafe, but with a little Peruvian flare, you have an incredible recipe. Unfortunately, pan con queso can not be enjoyed year round, so our artisan friends have to wait until the rainy season to indulge (rain=more food for the cows=more milk=more pan con queso). Pan con queso is super easy to make, all you need are a few simple ingredients. When making this recipe in our test kitchen, we used fresh, crusty, french bread and gruyère cheese from the local farmer’s market. The fresher, the better! The nutmeg adds a nutty, cinnamon taste, really complementing the gruyère. Serve it with desayuno (breakfast) or lonche (dinner). Enjoy!

Cooking quinoa:

The easiest way to prepare quinoa is to cook it like rice or pasta. Fill a large pot with water, and bring to a boil. Add the grain to the boiling water (serving suggestions are 1/4-1/3 cup dry per person), turn the heat to low, cover, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the water and allow the quinoa to cool. Fluff with a fork.

Here are some of our favorite ways to dress up quinoa:

Breakfast: Combine a cup of cooked quinoa with 1/2 cup of skim milk and 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, and microwave for 60 seconds. Great alternative to oatmeal (and “great alternative to oatmeal” rarely crosses our lips at Mayu!).

Side dish: In our kitchens, anything goes with quinoa. You can add roasted tomatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. Balsamic vinegar also adds a nice kick to quinoa. Feel free to top your quinoa with shrimp, tofu or chicken. Honestly, it’s just a vehicle for condiments and toppings!

Dessert: Here is Kate’s all time favorite quinoa recipe. Her host family use to serve it with milk, very similar to rice pudding and tapioca! The quinoa soaks up the cinnamon, sugar and milk to make a super sweet (and savory!) treat. Try substituting almond milk and agave nectar for the milk and sugar to boost the nutritional stats.

Finally, if you are not already sold, check out quinoa’s nutritional info:

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (42 grams) dry

Calories: 160
Total Fat: 2.5 grams
Cholesterol: 0 grams
Sodium: 10 grams
Total Carbohydrate: 28 grams
Dietary Fiber: 6.5 grams
Protein: 6 grams
Iron: 15%  Daily Value

Bon appetit!

Just last week we got some awesome news from our friends Dave and Kevin of WAVES for Development. Kate, Dave and Kevin were in the same Peace Corps group in Peru, where they worked directly with communities, Fair Trade associations, and non-profit developers. In 2005, Kevin founded WAVES for Development with the purpose of creating life-enriching experiences in coastal communities through educational surf programs and encouraging surf volunteerism to engage travelers and transform their world view.

WAVES is releasing a documentary project entitled CAPTURE, which profiles the journey of Jeremy Koons, a ski photographer from Salt Lake City Utah as he travels to Lobitos to teach the Peruvian children how to use digital cameras and modern software to shoot and print their own photographs. The goal of the film is to spread awareness of the WAVES organization by documenting one volunteer’s experience as he interacts with the Peruvian children and culture. It is has been a life-changing experience for the 50+ people that have already volunteered for the WAVES program and is exactly what we strive to capture in this short documentary.

Surfers! Are you interested in volunteering?! WAVES is a awesome opportunity to volunteer (and surf!) in the small town of Lobitos, Peru and teach the local children sustainable skills for a better future. Lobitos is a somewhat secret gem for surfing and is growing more and more popular by the day. WAVES aims to teach the locals how to create income from the growing surf tourism industry there. Kate remembers visiting Lobitos and raves about the beauty of the surrounding area. Think about it!

We are so proud of our Peace Corps friends; it is very rewarding seeing others helping with development issues and empowering the people of Peru. The proof is in the pudding: people fall in love with Peru and it’s people!

Check out Mayu and other Peace Corps businesses to see how others are giving back. If you want to know more about Peru, Peace Corp inspired businesses or how you can get involved, follow us via Twitter@shopmayu, our blog or Facebook.

WAVES has setup a fundraising site here: http://kck.st/9LIb5j. Should you choose to donate, you will become a part of the film, receive updates on the production, a DVD of the film and authentic Peruvian gifts and WAVES gear.

Big weekend plans? For those of us who are stateside, it may be just another weekend, but for our friends in Peru, they are just wrapping up the year’s biggest party. Carnival is a huge celebration throughout South America. The celebrations begin on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday and conclude at the start of Lent. Because different countries celebrate at different times, the dates are always subject to change; but what is constant is the noise, energy and celebration of music and dance.

Across Peru, the various Carnival queens and revelers showcase their floats and other Carnival paraphernalia. Kate joined in on the party while working for the Peace Corps: “we all danced around a tree, taking turns hacking at it with an axe! It was filled with candy and sweets; and when it finally fell, we scrambled towards the tree, gathering all the candy we could.” Trees filled with candy? Yes, please.

As fun as the party sounds, the preparations begin weeks in advance. There are floats to be made, candy-trees to be harvested and costumes to sew. Many of the costumes incorporate alpaca fiber, oftentimes dyed in rich hues of orange and red. For added flare, alpaca and ribbons can be weaved together, creating a fun and festive look. Elaborate meals are also planned, as Peruvians must engage in all their indulgences before the start of Lent.

As Carnival winds down, we wish our Peruvian friends a happy and safe year. Our artisans are our inspiration, and their culture and traditions are what makes Mayu products so special. For more details on Peruvian culture and lifestyle, stay tuned, we have some yummy recipes brewing at Mayu headquarters!

Following us on Twitter@shopmayu, our blog and Facebook.

Here is an interesting fact. Norma did not know how to knit. However, she did crochet and, therefore, learned to knit very easily. It is fascinating that she went from not knitting at all to knitting the luxurious hand-knit alpaca products Mayu has to offer. Each of our artisans is very gifted in the skills they possess.

If I remember correctly, Norma is working on a fringed halfie in this photo; tying on the fringes. Here you can see a few of the colors the fringed halfie comes in, as well: eggplant purple, chocolate brown, cream and charcoal grey.