Back in the 1960s the international development community coined the phrase “Trade not Aid” as an approach to poverty alleviation. The notion being that, in addition to humanitarian assistance and emergency response, countries facing financial hardship are best served by economic opportunities with other countries. In Ghana, Trade Aid Integrated is a non-profit organization that joins both concepts of assistance and opportunity by helping women from 19 different communities near Bolgatonga, a provincial capital, sell their distinctive and brightly-colored bolga baskets, for local and international sale. Some of the weavers are also beneficiaries of CRS-administered education programs that provide food to school children.

Members of a Frontiers of Justice delegation to Ghana recently visited Trade Aid, and among the visitors was our own Sinead Naughton, who serves as a CRS Fair Trade Ambassador. As someone who has had the privilege of visiting Ghana twice, it was a real treat this morning to see the smiling faces of a weaver and Sinead on the CRS blog! Check out the posting about the FOJ trip to Ghana and Burkina Faso to learn more about how CRS is promoting charity and economic justice in West Africa.

Tags: crafts, Economic Justice, fair trade, ghana

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.