Stay Connected. Check out the blog for information on 2011 fair trade campaigns to help increase awareness and bring more fair trade products to your community!

Our partners depend on support from people like you. Please consider donating to one or more of the partner organizations to support their education and advocacy programs.

Get One Pound of Unrefined Mascobado SUGAR for FREE when you buy 4 MINT or TWIST Chocolate Bars, both crystallized with mascobado sugar. In our online store, between now and Jan. 3, 2011.  Use coupon code: GiveFT.

Full of an unctuous sweetness, Alter Eco unrefined mascobado sugar is directly imported from a region in the Philippines where unfortunately many stories aren’t sugar-coated.  Small scale farmers have struggled against exploitation, violence and environmental issues.

Beth Mondejar lives and works on Negros Island where 300,000 farmers, like herself, are involved in the sugarcane cultivation that takes up 80% of the land. Investments on industrial sugarcane mills from oligarchs have eliminated crop diversification and created an inescapable dependency for the local farmers.

By joining the ALTER TRADE cooperative, Beth saw her income grow from $400 to $1,000 a year. Relieved, she shares how the holistic model, promoted by the co-op, taught her and her fellow farmers to become self-sufficient by growing kitchen gardens and raising chickens.

Robert, another member, has been able to send his two kids to the University of Bacolod, to study agronomy and accounting, hoping that they will come back to take over the farm.  “Today, I am proud of my work again”, he enthusiastically explains. “With Beth and the other leaders of the co-op, we are leading the way for every producer in the region. There are other cooperatives now getting organized, on Panay Island for example, across the bay…”

Brought to you by Global Exchange.

25% OFF all On-Line Indigenous Stock- Offer good through December 31st 2010. Use coupon code: GEGFT

Founded in 1994, Indigenous Designs is a progressively run, family-owned wholesale clothing company based in Santa Rosa, CA with a mission to provide training, sustainable employment, and fair wages for local and mountain dwelling artisans primarily in the highlands of Peru and Ecuador. Indigenous Designs is committed to using only ecological and natural fibers such as Organic Cotton, Alpaca, Silk, and Tencel in its high-quality sweaters, jackets, and accessories. Currently Indigenous Designs has access to up to 275 knitting & hand looming artisan groups consisting of 4-60 members per work group. The company has been the most consistent and largest provider of work to these knitting groups for the past five years.

Indigenous Designs has a mission to elevate artisans in the poorest regions of South America to world-renowned status in the handicraft textile market. Most of the weavers in Indigenous Designs Peruvian work groups live in the city of Arequipa and the surrounding countryside, in particular in the Pampa Canahuas Reserve. The company partners directly with organizations that provide training, educational materials, and equipment that otherwise could not be afforded. Many partner organizations offer no interest assistance loans for equipment and school supplies, for example. Indigenous Designs creates incentives connecting the company’s long-term financial performance to that of the individual artisans.

Brought to you by Global Exchange.

Now through Jan 1st 2011 : 20% off retail orders plus one FREE reusable organic cotton gift bag with every regular price item. Use coupon code GFT20.

HAE Now was the first t-shirt company to be approved under FairTrade USA’s Fair Trade Certified Apparel program. Their mill in India empowers factory workers with higher pay, medical and retirement benefits, safe conditions, training, housing allowance, right of unionization and Fair Trade premiums for each FTC product sold. The premiums are additional funds workers receive to invest in community programs.

Their cotton is grown in central India by the Chetna project, a farmer-owned collective. A typical small farmer in India usually borrows money at extortionary interest rates to buy pesticides and inputs. Burdened by debt, farmers and their families often abandon their land and end up living in filthy city slums. Some farmers commit acts of suicide in desperation. By participating in the Chetna project, cotton farmers are guaranteed fair prices, receive training on safe organic farming methods, and are able to secure low interest loans. An additional ‘fair trade premium’ is invested in community projects e.g. providing safe drinking water, loans to women, schools and medical facilities.

To help create a better planet and sustainable communities, please support HAE Now with your purchases and by spreading the word about their high quality, fair trade organic cotton apparel.

Brought to you by Fair Trade USA.

Coco-Zen

Take 20% off our Truffles-To-Give: 8pc Tin (1 Flavor) from 11/15 to 12/19.  Choice of flavors including vegan options. Use coupon code GIVEFT2010.

Coco-Zen is a small artisan chocolate confection company that uses only organic and Fair Trade Certified ingredients in all its chocolatey treats. Coco-Zen is particularly committed to using only organic/Fair Trade chocolate as modern cocoa farming is notorious for unfair labor practices – often guilty of unsafe working conditions, pay that is far below living wages, and work of all, use of child labor. The US State Department believes that thousands of child-slaves work on plantation in the cocoa producing regions of West Africa, where a large portion of the world’s consumed cocoa comes from.

The chocolate, cocoa butter and other cocoa derived ingredients in Coco-Zen truffles are made from cocoa beans that come from the Dominican Republic, Peru or Costa Rica where the cocoa farmers’ cooperative are certified both organic and Fair Trade. All Coco-Zen truffles are handmade to order.

Coco-Zen believes that we should eat good chocolate and give good chocolate… chocolate that’s good for the planet and good for people!

Brought to you by Global Exchange.

Tompkins Point Apparel

From 12/6-12/17, a $10 discount is offered per shirt if you agree to take five of those dollars and use it to spread holiday cheer. Use coupon code FTfriend.

Tompkins Point Apparel is putting class back into the classics.  By combining distinguished American designs with the mission of improving the lives of farmers and factory workers, its ‘enlightened preppy’ products fuse fashion with social cause, providing style at the same time as life-changing opportunities to workers.

Tompkins Point’s products are manufactured in a leading socially-responsible, unionized factory near Kolkata, India.  Its workers are paid decent wages, are provided basic health insurance and receive a 10% annual bonus, regardless of the factory’s profitability.  Additionally, the factory subsidizes schooling costs for all workers’ children, through the high school level.

Tompkins Point supports two farmer-owned cotton trading companies in Hyderabad, India.  Both projects work with smallscale farmers, those who generally own 4 acres of land or less, and have historically been exploited by traditional traders and moneylenders.  Both projects provide technical advice to farmers and support them as they transition their fields to organic farming practices.  By going organic, farmers increase their income while also strengthening local ecosystems.

As part of its commitment to farmers and factory workers, Tompkins Point Apparel donates 25% of its profits to education and economic development projects for those who produce its clothing.

Brought to you by Fair Trade USA.

Fair Trade Sports

Free shipping through the holidays! Use coupon code: FAIRSHIP

Eight million homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by flooding in Pakistan, where Fair Trade Sports producers live and work.  This natural disaster affected more people than the Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the Haiti earthquake put together, according to Oxfam, and continues to deteriorate Pakistan’s already-grim economic outlook.

You can help this holiday season.

Our Pakistan-based producers Imran Kahn and Abdul Sattar may not have been directly affected by the flooding, but they are scrambling to help extended family and friends. Sattar, (pictured left), father of eight, specializes in quality control for our soccer balls, each made of an average of 720 stitches.  Should a soccer ball have a crooked seam or a faulty panel, Sattar makes it right.

As the only income earner in his Sahowali-based household – which includes his children, wife – Rifatbibi, and his mother  – Fair Trade Certified wages and Fair Trade benefits play a large role in keeping the family afloat and the children safe from child labor.

Imran Kahn (pictured right with his sister) dropped out of fifth grade at the age of ten to work in a rubber processing factory.  Fifteen years later, Imran now makes Fair Trade Certified wages as a producer.

Kahn lives near the Sialkot district -  the principal global source of hand-stitched sports balls – supplying more than 70 percent of the global demand. Historically, sport ball manufactures have been criticized for low wages, substandard working conditions and illegal employment of children – forced into labor because the adult wages were too low to support the family.

Kahn and his father, who works in a tire repair shop, have been empowered to provide for their family of 10, access to many other Fair Trade benefits: discount healthcare, transportation and shopping.

Brought to you by Global Exchange.

All new customers will receive a 15% discount on the first order for Nov. 1-Dec. 15. Buy 2 gifts from the www.afairworld.org website and receive

• a pair of Recycled Paper Bead Earrings in a jewel bag. Buy 3 gifts and receive a
• free Recycled Paper Bead Necklace in a jewel bag.

Use coupon code AFW2010.

Our glass bead jewelry is handcrafted in the Zulu province of South Africa. The ethnic beaded jewelry is made by a grass roots community of women, one which is ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The women’s production of this jewelry is providing sustainable income resulting in new self-respect and dignity through consistent work.

Receive 10% off the purchase price of any stuffed animal when you order through www.PartnersForJustTrade.org/shop, offer valid until 12/31/2010.
Use coupon code: GFT10

Formed in 2003 by five women in Huancavelica, Peru, the artisan group, El Mercurio, now includes over 30 women. The members of El Mercurio are extremely talented knitters but, until recently, had been unable to channel their talent in a marketable way. To earn money before the group formed, some members washed clothes in the river, some shined shoes, and others worked as maids. But none of these activities resulted in an income that would ever help them out of extreme poverty.

Today, members of El Mercurio use their skills to knit a variety of children’s products including stuffed animals and finger puppets that U.S. consumers have fallen in love with. Their product line has grown to include a number of organic stuffed animals as well. The stuffed animals include colorful llamas, turtles, tigers, pigs, macaws, pandas, and elephants.

Two members have had the opportunity to visit the U.S. and discuss the positive impact Fair Trade has had on their lives and community. Member Ayde Riveros said, “The changes are huge. Now we can tell our husbands, ‘I am helping support the household, just like you.’ We want to be equal to men.”

Brought to you by Fair Trade Federation.

Receive $5 off your order of $25 or more on select Divine Chocolate Seasonal Specialties and Gifts (the select items are Milk Chocolate Pralines Gift Box, Divine Chocolate Salted Fudge Gift Box, Dark Chocolate Holiday Balls and Milk Chocolate Holiday Balls). Offer good til 12/15/2010. To take advantage of this special offer, visit www.buydivine.com and use coupon code Divine5 at check out.

A wonderful story for the holiday season lies at the heart of delicious Divine Chocolate. Divine was established in 1998 and is co-owned by Kuapa Kokoo, a cooperative of thousands of smallholder farmers in Ghana who supply the finest quality cocoa beans for the chocolate.  Kuapa Kokoo receives a fair price for the cocoa as well as a social premium to invest in their communities.  As co-owners of Divine Chocolate, Kuapa Kokoo farmers share in the profits too.

Lovingly grown in the shade of the tropical rainforest, Kuapa’s cocoa beans are slowly fermented and dried in the sun in small batches by the farmers who take great pride in their chocolate company.

All packaging for Divine Chocolate products feature traditional West African Adinkra symbols.  Each symbol has its own special meaning, representing something integral to Ghanaian culture.  These symbols are still in use today serving to deliver messages of goodwill.

Choosing Divine gives you a guaranteed pleasure, and the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo a guaranteed fair deal, as well as the chance to invest in a better future.  Good news for everyone – that’s the way business should be.

Watch more films featuring farmers from Kuapa Kokoo http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/about/FarmersFilms.aspx