FAIR TO THE POOR
(world mission)
Before, Emilio was a lonely and hungry man who collected trash. Now, he has a small revenue and his three children, who were forced to beg, are attending school. Fair trade is fair to everyone, but helps especially the poor.
He was a poor man dressed in worn flip-flops and a torn t-shirt and he seemed exhausted as he struggled up the steep incline of our driveway with a heavy sack over his shoulder. I stopped the van and drove him and his load up the hill.
He
was a happy man, not because he got a lift but because he had a bulging
sack of used juice drink pouches to sell to the PREDA’s Fair Trade
recycling bag project. He got top prices for his successful collection
of the discarded aluminum foil drink pouches. They can be an unsightly
environmental hazard, clogging up canals, blocking drains, and allowing
mosquitoes to proliferate in stagnant water and spread malaria.
Emilio is not so poor anymore. His life, as an ever hungry and lonely scrap scavenger pushing a wooden cart around Olongapo City collecting trash and junk to feed his family, has ended. His three children have stopped begging all day on the streets and attend a government elementary school. Thanks to the Fair Trade recycling bag making project at the People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance Center, known as PREDA.
FAIR TO EVERYONE
Here, Emilio’s recycled drink pouches are examined, counted and
stored for later distribution to the women’s cooperative and family
sewing groups. They take them home and sew the colorful drink pouches
into useful, durable and very high- quality fashionable back packs,
shopping bags, wallets, and hand bags of all kinds. These are sold all
over the world to the delight of teenagers, children and adults who love
the unique designs.
Hardly any two bags are alike. Each is unique because of the colors and the combination of drink pouches used in each bag. One recycling company in Italy is planning to distribute a set of three large square bags with shoulder straps as household containers for bottles, paper and cans. When full, the bags can be picked up and carried to the neighborhood recycling bins. A supermarket plans to sell them as a replacement for plastic bags.
Fair
Trade is sweeping the world where people of con science want to do good
when they buy food and other prod ucts, and contribute to the well-being
of the planet. With the menace of climate change coming closer, everyone
has to do their share of recycling and help the poorest of the world
have a better life by buying Fair Trade products. People of conscience
and intelligence know that children, prisoners and exploited people are
enslaved to make cheap products and do not want to support such cruel
exploitation by buying them.
GUARANTEE MARK
Take those beautiful exploding fireworks that delight the crowds. If
they are made in the Philippines, they are likely to be made by minors
and children in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Despite laws
forbidding it, in Central Luzon alone 1,084 children below 17 years are
working in the industry, mostly around the run-up of festivals,
according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Thousands
more are working in food production and the sex trade and we, at PREDA,
are trying to stop it and are supplying Fair Trade dried fruits, drinks
and giving fair paid jobs to thousands. So we need fair trade as never
before.
“Fair Trade” is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks a greater equity in inter national trade, It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers, especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations - backed by consumers - are actively engaged in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practices of conventional international trade
I FAT stands for International Federation of Alternative Trade and its members, like PREDA. It is a recognized fair trade organization, and the best judge and guarantor of what is a fairly-traded product. Only products with the FAT mark and no other should be recognized. This is a guarantee that the products are really fair to everyone involved, including, of course, the consumers.
