Meet Artisans
Mali Women Craft Fair Trade Comeback
Meet CRS’ U.S. Craft Partner
SERRV: 60 Years of Providing Opportunity through Trade
Interview with Serena Sato, Director of Sales and Marketing for SERRV
Can you tell me a little about your organization? How long you’ve been in business? How many staff? Your mission? Where are you located?
SERRV was founded in 1949 and we are now celebrating our 60th anniversary!
We have approximately 35 regular staff, and more during the holiday season.
Our mission is to eradicate poverty wherever it resides by providing opportunity and support to artisans and farmers worldwide. We do this by:
- Purchasing and marketing handcrafts and food products
- Promoting sustainable development within our producer partner organizations and artisans and farmers
We are located in Madison, Wisconsin and New Windsor, Maryland.
Why have you chosen to be a fully committed Fair Trade organization?
This is core to what SERRV has always been. We are a nonprofit organization that has focused on providing opportunity through trade since our founding.
What do you feel your role is in your community and in your producer partners’ communities?
As SERRV is a national organization, we strive to educate our supporters wherever they may be, through our catalog, newsletter, web site, and other materials.
In our producer partners’ communities, we work with local organizations to ensure there are quality of life improvements.
Our model of working involves developing relationships with organizations that go beyond just purchasing products. As a development organization, we are interested in partnering to support organizational growth and to build the skills and capacity that will enable an organization to work into the future. We are also interested in seeing artisans and farmers gain skills that will increase their independence, empower them, and give them tools for their futures.
What type of outreach do you do in the Catholic community in the U.S.? Are there any projects you’ve collaborated with CRS on – trainings, Ambassadors, delegations? (Feel free to name some Catholic parishes or other individuals you have a relationship with or you think exemplify how Catholics could be involved in Fair Trade
Our Work of Human Hands partnership with CRS started in 1995 and now has thousands of participants through catalog purchases or parish sales. We also share the CRS Chocolate Program which has several hundred participants.
CRS has welcomed SERRV’s involvement in Ambassador trainings and calls, we have jointly attended conferences, and we have in-person meetings at least twice a year.
Why do you think Catholic involvement in the Fair Trade movement is important?
There is a strong Catholic theological basis for supporting fair trade work. CRS has done a fabulous job of making the connection between Catholic Social Teaching and Fair Trade. Through our partnership, we have found that US Catholics are keen to have the tangible opportunity to improve the lives of their brothers and sisters overseas.
What type of outreach do you do in the communities you purchase your products from? (For coffee partners: Do you purchase coffee from a cooperative CRS has worked with, if so, which ones? See attached list.)
This question may not quite be relevant to us. We have 75 partner organizations that we empower to provide local services.
Besides price, what impact do you feel Fair Trade has had on producer communities?
We believe that Fair Trade is much more than simply selling products made by people who are paid a fair wage.
It includes:
- assuring there is a developmental aspect to each transaction
- acting as an advocate for our partners, helping consumers to understand the conditions under which producers work and educating them about how their buying habits have an impact on poor and marginalized people
- helping producers secure new customers
- being transparent about where products come from
- ensuring that the Fair Trade principles as defined by the WFTO are implemented, and that artisans and farmers have access to resources such as education, health care, banking, and skills training
We believe in the whole package that makes up Fair Trade. Organizations like SERRV that are 100% Fair Trade exemplify the very highest values of Fair Trade. We evaluate the performance of our entire organization according to Fair Trade values which include social impact, capacity building, and producer empowerment, not just our product sourcing methodologies. SERRV participates in the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) self assessment and monitoring process, has been independently audited by WFTO, and has been certified as a Fair Trade Organization.
From all of your experiences with Fair Trade, can you share a memorable experience – either how FT has changed a life, a lesson learned a friendship made…
There are so many stories we could tell. We find inspiration with the women of Delta Survie, a group in Mali providing care and handcraft employment and training to women who are recovering from obstetric fistula surgery. Another example is the head of Get Paper Industry in Nepal, who learned about fair trade and turned his company into a cooperative in order to benefit more artisans.
CRS believes each of their partners is unique? If you had to define the “uniqueness” of your organization, what would the definition be?
It is very unique among fair traders to reach a 60 year milestone!
As a nonprofit organization, our goal is that all of SERRV’s activities, including those related to marketing Fair Trade products, have a developmental aspect which helps our partners to improve their skills, gain needed experience, and reach new markets.
Other comments?
SERRV and CRS share a long and close relationship of working together to spread the word and build support of Fair Trade. We appreciate CRS’ dedication to this goal.
Fair Trade is a Priority at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary
In today’s troubled economy, the need for community events that bring people together and celebrate shared values of economic justice are more needed than ever. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish, in Cutler Bay, Florida, is one example of how offering Fair Trade products for sale to parishioners can help the disadvantaged around the world and those in need locally.
The project grew out of an idea to promote a non-materialistic alternative to purchasing Christmas gifts while also providing an outlet for Fair Trade producers as well. The parish ministry ordered a variety of Fair Trade products and packaged them into attractive gift baskets, wrapped in cellophane and topped off with a Christmas ribbon. That first year only yielded 25 purchases, but the interest caught on. Led by CRS Fair Trade Ambassador Linda Coughlin, and other dedicated volunteers, the second year doubled its success with 50 baskets sold. By the third year, the parish ministry realized the community needed to hold monthly sales. That’s when sales really took off. At Christmas time in 2008, the parish sold 125 Fair Trade gift baskets and was able to donate $1,000 to a local charity.
Fair Trade can help your community have fun, shop in solidarity and build connections around the corner and around the world.
