The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
SHOP PROVIDES FAIR TRADE GIFTS
Hope Collection supports 8 family workshops in Ecuador, other international artisans, farmers
An Oberlin nonprofit supports farmers and artisans from across the globe, also while providing local residents with unique products.
“We opened Sept. 4,” said Francesca Barbee, director of The Hope Collection, at 55 E. College St., Suite 1. “We’re a nonprofit, fair trade organization.
“The organization that sponsors this store is called INTO (Illuminating Nations Through offering an Opportunity), which is a fair trade nonprofit that I’m the director of. So, INTO works in Ecuador with eight family workshops of artisans.
“Fair trade is a global movement to pay artisans or farmers depending on the product, whether it’s a commodity or handicraft, to get a fair wage in their local context.”
Barbee said the nonprofit follows a few guiding principles to help the artisans.
“We follow different principles; paying a fair wage in a local market, equal pay for both genders, no child labor, protecting the environment,” she said.
"Fair trade is a global movement to pay artisans or farmers depending on the product... to get a fair wage in their local context." — Francesca Barbee, director of The Hope Collection
“Investing back into the communities where we work, transparent business partnerships and education to the end- customer here in North America,” Barbee said. “So, the Hope Collection is bringing all the products from Ecuador that INTO sells as well as other companies for other countries throughout the world.
“We have products from 16 different countries.”
Barbee said the Hope Collection has a good variety of home decor.
“It’s all about developing the product to be sold in North America,” she said. “We provide education and technical training. So, all the products here, are from fair trade.
“We have home decor. We have food-safe products from Nicaragua. We have mortars and pestles for grinding down herbs. We have chip and salsa bowls. We also sell ladles and tortilla holders. We also have bread warmers along with table linens, place mats and oven mitts.”
Barbee said the shop also carries recycled and upcycled products.
“We also have luminaries that are all hand-etched with a bike spoke,” she said. “They are thrown on a kick wheel. They are then hand etched and then hand painted.
“We have hand-carved and hand-painted ornaments that are made from balsa wood, so they are extremely light. We also have home decor baskets from Bangladesh, including ones that incorporate upcycled saris. They have
been wrapped around the baskets to add some more color.
“So, a lot of our products are going to be sustainably harvested or upcycled products. For example, we sell journals that are a byproduct of an elephant conservationist effort in Sri Lanka. We also have paper weights from recycled car parts.”
Barbee said a lot of artisans from the developing worlds only are working for the local markets and essentially not even covering their labor costs.
“Most of the artisans that I work with, when I do a cost analyst with them, they realize they haven’t even paid themselves for their work,” she said. “For example, they were just giving the prices they make in the market when pricing their items.
“I had them sit down and paid them for a day’s work. I used that as a guide to price the products. The way fair trade works is I put an order in and I pay for 50 percent of the order upfront, so that money covers their material costs, their labor and they are paid for the remainder when they turn in the product.
“We then cover all the costs for shipping and marketing, so it is very low cost for them to work with us.”
Barbee said the shop offers products customers won’t find anywhere else in the area.
“People can buy products here that they will not find anywhere else in Lorain County,” she said. “They also have the assurance that they bought a product that was directly made by someone and that person was honored and empowered through their production process.”