CRS is the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. Learn about CRS Fair Trade and find out how you can help promote economic justice, reduce global poverty, and protect the environment.
Just in time for World Fair Trade Day, CRS is proud to release, Fair Trade: A Parish Story . This video quickly but powerfully shares how St. Camillus parish in Silver Spring, MD is building solidarity through Fair Trade. Click to watch
A Parish Story On You Tube
Right now is also a good time to take the Fair Trade My Home pledge. Monday is the deadline for committing to support CRS partners and entering into a raffle to win Haitian art!
On the occasion of Earth Day, we encourage you to deepen your commitment to the Fair Trade principle of environmental stewardship. Consider taking the St. Francis Pledge to care for creation. Today is also a great time to Fair Trade Your Home in advance of World Fair Trade Day, May 8.
The theme of WFTD is Fair Trade My Home linking our lives to the livelihoods of our brothers and sisters around the world. Producers need to provide for their households. Consumers like you have the opportunity to bring Fair Trade food, decorations, jewelry and more into your own home in acts of solidarity shopping. To Fair Trade Your Home is easy and fun. Our friends at the Fair Trade Resource Network have put together a tool kit of resources and come up with several contests to inspire you.
We here at CRS Fair Trade have a contest of our own: every person who takes the Fair Trade My Home pledge–meaning promises to use one product from a CRS Fair Trade partner in the year 2010–will be entered into a raffle to win Haitian artwork from our Work of Human Hands catalog.
Here’s how to participate:
1) Fill out the pledge form attached and return it to fairtrade “at” crs.org before May 10. Don’t forget to buy a product for your home from our crafts, coffee, and chocolate partners. WFTD Pledge Card 2010
2) Plan a Work of Human Hands sale, a Raise Money Right chocolate fundraiser, a Fair Trade coffee tasting or other fun event using CRS Fair Trade partner products. Encourage attendees to take the Fair Trade My Home pledge and return this downloadable WFTD pledge tally sheet to fairtrade “at” crs.org by May 10.
This day and every day Fair Trade gives us a chance to embrace the principles of Catholic social teaching such as care of god’s creation and working for the common good. Join us in putting principles into practice.
The Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative invites you to a webcast featuring a CRS Representative from Africa. We’ll explore issues around the extraction of natural resources in the developing world ( such as the links between mining of minerals and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo). The webcast will be held Wednesday, April 14 from 2:00-3:00 PM Easter time:
Join us for:
As a Fair Trader, you can do more than eat fair foods and Fair Trade Your Home through crafts. This webcast will help you understand the paradox of how some countries rich in natural resources actually tend to have high and growing levels of poverty, extreme income inequalities, greater risk of conflict, and high levels of corruption.
For more details about this important economic justice issue:
Last year, CRS Fair Trade was proud to be part of the World’s Largest Fair Trade break in honor of World Fair Trade Day. For 2010, we’re excited about a new spirit of friendly competition as Fair Traders come together to celebrate the people who grow our food and produce our goods.
The theme of this year’s celebration is Fair Trade My Home. Producers around the world need to provide for their households. I think of someone like Comfort Kumeah, of the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa association, who invited a Raise Money Right delegation into her home in Ghana, where she explained the benefits Fair Trade had for her community. Consumers have the opportunity to bring Fair Trade food, decorations, jewelry and more into their own homes in acts of solidarity shopping. Every time I enjoy Divine chocolate Easter Eggs or Equal Exchange organic bars, I am connected to farmers like Comfort.
To bring Fair Trade into your home and community is easy and fun. Our friends at the Fair Trade Resource Network have put together a tool kit of resources and come up with several contests to inspire you. CRS Fair Trade has a contest of its own: every person who takes the Fair Trade My Home pledge–meaning promises to use one product from a CRS Fair Trade partner in the year 2010–will be entered into a raffle to win Haitian artwork from our Work of Human Hands catalog.
Here’s how to participate:
1) Fill out the pledge form attached and return it to fairtrade “at” crs.org before May 10. Don’t forget to buy a product for your home from our crafts, coffee, and chocolate partners. This is the honor system people! WFTD pledge card 2010
2) Plan a Work of Human Hands sale, a Raise Money Right chocolate fundraiser, a Fair Trade coffee tasting or other fun event using CRS Fair Trade partner products. Encourage attendees to take the Fair Trade My Home pledge and return this downloadableWFTD pledge tally sheet to fairtrade “at” crs.org by May 10.
Who knows, CRS Fair Trade may even win the contest for the organization with the most supporters taking the pledge. But our real motivation is to help you act in solidarity with farmers and artisans around the world!
There’s nothing like a healthy, fun competition to get Fair Traders going. Last month, in honor of World Fair Trade Day, 56,892 participants in more than 450 U.S. events (and the Fair Trade Resource Network is still counting) surpassed Finland’s 2008 record of world’s largest Fair Trade break. Here at CRS in Baltimore we had 57 participants.
Let us know how you celebrated!
Or just ask us why Katy is dressed as a mermaid…it is all in the name of economic justice!
Our first World Fair Trade Day dispatch from Jeanine Boucher-Colbert, Youth Programs Officer in Catholic Relief Services-West:
Nearly 2,000 Catholic women and a few brave men gathered for the fourth NW Catholic Women’s Convocation in Bellevue, WA on May 1-2, 2009. On Friday night a group of women volunteers and CRS staff* organized a World Fair Trade Day chocolate tasting for all the participants, thanks to a donation from Equal Exchange, our new chocolate partner. An announcement was made about the CRS Fair Trade Fund support of World Fair Trade Day as the participants enjoyed the chocolate and read about CRS Fair Trade with information cards we provided. Great solidarity moment and effort to help regain the title of World’s Largest Fair Trade Break!
If you want to participate in the World’s Largest Fair Trade Break, be sure and check out the organizing materials of FTRN.
* Far left is CRS Zambia staff Carol Mumba, former CRS volunteeer Margaret Johnson and CRS West staff Jeanine Boucher-Colbert; Far right is Called To Witness alum Ann Labeck. Also in the group: Margie Ames, Archbishop Murphy High School and CRS Cyberbridges teacher, and many Just Faith graduates, friends and parishioners of St, Andrew parish, Portland, Oregon. Photo thanks to Maggie Maggio!
I’m feeling pretty fortunate at the moment, although the story doesn’t start out so good:
This week Katy and I received an email from somebody who was clearly dubious about the value of Fair Trade. He shared some “supply side” arguments and hinted that maybe Fair Trade was a waste of resources. I think I addressed his concerns by explaining how the principles of Fair Trade mirror those of Catholic Social Teaching. I also assured him that the lion’s share of Catholic Relief Services’ budget is dedicated to assisting the poor and vulnerable overseas. I acknowledged that Fair Trade has its flaws, but I also shared that CRS is committed to a variety of strategies to confront global poverty.
Okay, all in a day’s work, right? Except that’s actually not the case. Most of my days are FILLED with people who have embraced Fair Trade as a way to express the values of their faith in the marketplace. The entire economic justice team gets inundated with requests for more information and action items. Truth is, there are a lot of CRS Fair Trade fans like you out there!
And, now, just in time for World Fair Trade Day on May 9th, you can show your loyalty to Fair Trade with a festive sticker. Put it on your water bottle, coffee mug, car bumper or bike. Let others know you believe in Fair Trade and help us promote the CRS Fair Trade website! To order this free resource, send an email with your mailing address to resources “at” crs.org. Please let us know how many stickers–up to 20 each person–that you’d like.
And thanks for making my day!
A big question for any social movement is “Does it actually make an impact?” Next month, consumers in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin will have a chance to hear directly from Peruvian artisans about the difference Fair Trade has made in their lives. Thanks in part to the CRS Fair Trade Fund, our allies at Partners for Just Trade and Green America are celebrating World Fair Trade Day with artisans Evangelina Pizarro and Ayde Riveros. The women are spending several weeks visiting communities in the Midwest. If you are in that region, check out the tour schedule to learn more!
Last week we e-mailed our Fair Trader newsletter that comes out every two months. If you didn’t receive it, please subscribe! This month we featured a variety of stories about CRS Fair Trade:
* Breaking the Record: The World’s Biggest Coffee Break
* Raising Money Right with Fair Trade Chocolate
* Fair Trade = Good News
* Catholics Confront Global Poverty
*The 3rd annual Global Solidarity Conference
We also included news blasts about the wider movement. One of the newsletter stories, about Fair Trade Ambassador Valerie Lizarraga, is also available in Spanish by visiting crsespanol.org
Catholic Relief Services works in about 100 countries and in many of those same places tens of thousands of people will take a Fair Trade break on May 9: World Fair Trade Day. From coffee cupping to drumming circles to health screenings, Fair Traders use the second Saturday of May as a rallying point to cele
brate the principles of Fair Trade and how the movement positively impacts lives.
Here in the United States, the CRS Fair Trade Fund is a proud sponsor of World Fair Trade Day, and we invite you to join us in celebrating the power of economic justice! Fair Trade supporter
s around the country will take a break and enjoy a cup of Fair Trade coffee, a bar of Fair Trade chocolate, bake a cake using Fair Trade sugar, join in a drum circle with Fair Trade musical instruments or participate in a game of soccer using Fair Trade soccer balls. You can create your own event, and the Fair Trade Resource Network provides free resources to help you plan. While you are at it, consider Raising Money Right as an easy way to celebrate AND fundraise for worthy causes.
If you live in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, or Wisconsin you have a special chance to hear directly about the power of Fair Trade when artisans from Peru visit a community near you. A Fair Trade artisan tour organized by Green America and Partners for Just Trade, is bringing Evangelina Pizarro and Ayde Riveros to the Midwest to share their stories of how Fair Trade has changed their lives. On their US tour – Resonating Change: Connecting Communities Through Fair Trade – Ms. Pizarro and Ms. Riveros will give first hand accounts of how the purchase of Fair Trade products directly improves the lives of farmers and artisans in the global south. The tour is supported in part by the CRS Fair Trade Fund and you can find products from Peru in our crafts catalog.
