Ten Thousand Villages sells third world hopes

Brock will be promoting awareness of international issues and free trade in hosting the annual Ten Thousand Villages sale, taking place in the Sean O'Sullivan Gallery during the week of Nov. 8-12. The sale is sponsored by Brock and WUSC (World University Service of Canada), and will be run mostly by volunteers within the university as well as volunteers from the Niagara-on-the-Lake store.

Ten Thousand Villages is a completely non-profit organization that sells crafts made by disadvantaged artisans in developing countries from around the world. The organization sells hand-made crafts and products from 30 underdeveloped countries to consumers in support of free trade. The organization works directly with people who are unemployed or severely underemployed, single mothers, disabled, or widowed and have never sold or marketed their crafts before.

The artisans are encouraged to make whatever they can with the materials that they have and Ten Thousand Villages pays them a wage up front to help feed, clothe and pay for housing, and cuts out the middle man of conventional trading. The artisans are paid immediately so they don't have to rely on begging, or over-charging banks and money launderers. The products are made in small group settings or homes where there is usually no education system, and where artisans can make crafts while managing household and farming chores.

Carol Durksen, the Assistant Manager of the Niagara-on-the-Lake location, said that it is also important for the organization to also teach the artisans how to make a living.

"We teach them marketable skills that they can use to earn wages in order to care for their families and bring them out of poverty," Durksen said. "The organization is about teaching how to earn a living with dignity. Some of the villages we work with have never had an education system, and one village in Cameroon ... was able to pay for a teacher with their earnings from their crafts, and they now have a school for the children."

Durksen is pleased with the support that the Brock community has given to the annual sale, from both the students and the faculty.

"Brock has always been very encouraging each year we've held the sale," she said. "We get a great turn-out and often meet students who are hearing about the organization for the first time."

The event will be selling crafts, jams, coffee, tea and other fair-trade items on Monday from noon to 7 p.m., and all day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the sale will be held from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Anne Litke, Manager of the Niagara-on-the-Lake store, encourages everyone to come and see the sale.

"It is open to anyone, and there is something for everyone. There are lots of ideas for Christmas gifts and it's a great opportunity to see what the organization is all about and how we work," said Litke. "It's one way we can make a difference by helping less fortunate people, as well as teaching them to survive for themselves."

There are sign-up sheets for volunteers to help with the sale in the Office of International Services and both international and regular students are encouraged to sign up.

"It's a great event to get involved with because it's promoting awareness for such an important cause," says Christina Bosilo, from the Office of International Services and a volunteer of the event. "The purchases from the sale not only help people from around the world, they also help students right here in Brock."

Ten per cent of the proceeds made at the sale go to sponsoring two first year Brock students who are refugees from other countries.

The Ten Thousand Villages sale is a great way to get some shopping done while promoting a good cause and directly helping hundreds of less-fortunate people from around the world.