Our favorite artisans We’ve collected excerpts from some of our favorite stories of Peruvian artisans that Sam, Alison and Simon visited. Log onto NUVO.net for their complete stories. All photos from Peru are provided by the Carpenter-Schumacher family.
Emilio Hurtado PHOTO BY KRISTEN PUGH
Alison, Simon and Sam inside Global Gifts.
An unexpected connection “On September 17, Simon, Alison and I left for our gr and adventure ...” When Sam Carpenter and Alison Schumacher and their 2-y ear-old son, Simon, visited Fermín Vilcapoma in his Lima workshop, it wasn’t the first time the Peruvian jewelry maker had met someone fr om Indiana. “After hearing that we lived in Indianapolis, he told us he’d visited Indiana University in Bloomington last January at the invitation of a college gr oup,” Sam writes in one of his many missives for M anos Amigas, a fair trade organization based in Lima. “I went into a fair trade shop there and saw some of my pr oducts,” Vilcapoma said of his time in B loomington. That fair trade shop is Global Gifts and Sam Carpenter is its executive director. Carpenter and his family returned in August from a year-long sabbatical spent in Peru, meeting local artisans and working with fair trade exporter Manos Amigas — it means Friendly Hands — to understand the fair tr ade process at a deeper level.
What is fair trade? Shoppers find the label “fair trade” emblazoned across all manner of goods these days. But that wasn’t true in 1988, when Global Gifts was founded. Although the very first fair trade organizations were formed in the United States after World War II, fair trade as a movement has experienced sizable growth and exposure in only the last 10 years. “This sounds really simple, but most people do not know that fairly traded items means fair wages for the workers along with proper working conditions, which means no sweatshops,” says Cullen Webster, a volunteer at the Global Gifts store on Mass Ave. In simple terms, fair trade is a movement that supports higher standards for producers of goods in developing countries. It’s an economic, social and sustainabilityminded system that stabilizes the balance between producers and consumers. It seeks to boost the living and wor king
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conditions of the producers while educating the consumer. Transparency between buyer and producer is the goal, and the result is international trade equity. Although the average consumer may come across fair trade products daily — especially in supermarkets where the coffee, chocolate, sugar and tea markets continue to expand with new fair trade certifications — there is a perfect place to shop exclusively for fair trade products locally.
The gift that gives twice “We like to think that when someone purchases something from the store, they’re giving the gift that gives twice,” says Global Gifts volunteer and founding member Mary Liechty. “Not only are they giving a gift to their loved one, but you’re giving the gift of income for the family that made the product.” More than 40 countries are represented inside each store, where items are grouped
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into clusters of beautiful, colorful displays. Right now, as Global Gifts prepares for its busiest time of the year, long strings of hanging ornaments dangle in the front window. Stacks of cozy knit scarves and hats line one wall, and handmade jew elry sparkles on another. Sam and Alison lead me around the store, highlighting handicrafts from Peru, including a gorgeous, delicate bracelet made of butterfly wings encased in glass and linked by silver. The finger puppets displayed on the NUVO cover and the nativities that decorate many corners of the store are also products of Peru. The Mass Ave storefront is a comfortable space with a friendly face stationed at the register. Born out of the Indianapolis Mennonite Church 22 years ago, the stores have a close group of volunteers. Although they’re no longer officially affliated with the Mennonite Church, many volunteers still come from the church. Sam Carpenter wasn’t there in the
Emilio Hurtado produces carved and burnt gourds, called mates burilados. “My most popular product at the beginning was musical instruments. Now it’s a mix of everything: jewelry boxes, small containers, instruments,” Hurtado says. As a young man, he learned the craft from his parents, mastered the skill and taught his brothers. His father died when he was 13 or 14 years old. Three months later his mother got married again and left his brothers and sister alone. They were approximately 14, 12, 8, and 6 years old. As eldest, Emilio became the head of the family. He had to give up his studies and look for work. For 12 years, he worked in a mate burilado workshop and received clothing and food for himself and his siblings as payment.
Global Gifts
446 Massachusetts Ave. 1300 E. 86th St. 122 N. Walnut St., Bloomington 10 percent of all Black Friday sales will be donated to training for stone carvers in Haiti; VSA Indiana, an arts organization for people with disabilities; and Stone Belt, a Bloomington service provider for people with developmental disabilities.
NOTE:
PHOTOS BY KRISTEN PUGH
Global gifts, from left to right: Chulucanas ceramic birds from Peru, $13; beaded bracelets from Kenya, $8; cat friends ornament from Indonesia, $8; inspirational heart rocks from Kenya, $3.50; contemporary ceramic nativity from Peru, $98; butterfly bracelet from Peru, $170
beginning — he was studying the social sciences field of peace and conflict studies in Northern Ireland and living in the town of Derry. In 1999, Derry became a fair trade town, which means it’s a town that has made a commitment to suppor ting fair trade and using products with the fair trade mark. A city or a region can do so, too. (Bloomington, where one of the Global Gifts stores is located, is fairly close to becoming a fair trade town. Log on to NUVO.net to read about their progress.) After learning about fair trade in Derry, Sam ended his studies by writing a thesis about the movement. That same interest led him to Global Gifts, where he came aboard in 2001 as a manager of Global Gifts’ store in Nora. As the nonprofit expanded, Carpenter soon assumed the role of executive director. But even before becoming executive director, Carpenter had planned to take a long-term trip to explore fair trade issues. His wife, Alison, who left her position at Girls, Inc. of Greater Indianapolis after their son, Simon, was born, was just as game. So, they started to plan.
To Peru While most parents would hesitate to take their 2-year-old on an international trip for even a week, Sam and Alison eagerly anticipated the opportunity to travel with Simon for their year abroad. The Carpenter-Schumacher family left Indiana in September 2011. After packing up their toddler, they moved out of their Rocky Ripple home, which was rented to another family, stored their belongings and carried just six suitcases with them.
“I remember thinking — when we were getting ready to leave and it was a r eally hectic time because we were moving stores and essentially opening a new store for Global Gifts [in Bloomington] — that when I got on the plane, there would be this big sigh of relief and have this nice relaxed experience,” says Sam. “It wasn’t like that. There wasn’t ever a period of not having responsibility, because of Simon.” They didn’t anticipate the impact Simon would have on their trip. “Simon has blond hair — white blond hair,” Alison says. “So he stood out; people would always say, ‘Ay, que lindo!’ (‘Ah, how cute!’ about Simon, and reach over and tousle his hair. Once we started our volunteer work, and we were going through different parts of Lima in a lot of places wher e they don’t typically see tourists, let alone gringos, he really drew a lot of attention. I really think that people took us under their wing because they loved Simon.” “So many times, we would be visiting artisans and there would be kids around and Simon would be playing with the kids while we talked,” says Alison. The blondie jumped into interactions with artisans, their families, strangers in the park, vendors at the local market, everywhere. “I am amazed at the ease at which Simon makes friends. And his smile seems to win folks over with no trouble at all,” Sam wrote on Nov. 2 of last year on his blog. Simon was a tiny, blond, human icebreaker. “That was a really good door-opener,” says Sam. “He would play with the kids and the artisans would smile and like that. It made it easier for us to [begin to work with them].” Getting to the artisans was no easy
task. Lima is a large, sprawling metropolis where one-third of the population of the country resides.
Metropolis “Lima is so big,” Alison says. “Official estimates are around 8 or 9 million, but there’s a lot of people who aren’t counted because they’re living in these shanty towns in the middle of the city where people have taken over a sand dune or a mountain that has zero services. But they’ve just squatted there, and over time the government will build stairs or [start] running electrical lines, and over a long period of time it just becomes part of the city. But those people are just not counted [in official censuses], but when you put those folks in, it’s really like 13 or 14 million people.” The Carpenter-Schumacher family stayed in Miraflores, one of 43 densely populated districts in the city. “We lived in a part of the city where most of the expats lived,” says Alison. “If you worked for the embassy, our neighborhood was where they would assign housing.” The expat community, while not unwelcoming, wasn’t sharing the same kind of experience as the Carpenter-Schumacher family. “We had a big affection for Lima and P eru; we saw parts of Lima and Peru that most people never ever see, and a lot of poverty,” Alison says. “The expat community, housing was provided for them, a car was provided for them, a driver was provided for them. It was very possible for them to live in a bubble . I felt uncomfortable ... sometimes because they would say things like, ‘I can’t wait to get out of this hellhole’ or ‘I can’t wait to get back to civilization.’ I would feel so offended for
Mario Nolasco Since his land was just sand, his weeks in his workshop were spent sinking posts in the ground and building walls with thin wood. He used woven mats for his roof. As Lima is a desert, it rarely rains, so woven reed mats were sufficient as well as typical of his neighbors’ homes as well. But they are not very strong or permanent. “I lived in the workshop too, of course. You have to guard your stuf f. People would say, ‘finish your floor; how can you work with a sand floor?’ ” Nolasco says. “But, if your pottery piece falls off of the table and onto the sand, it doesn’t break. If you have a floor, it does. And if you are painting it and it falls into the sand, even though the sand sticks to the paint as if it were glue, you can just rinse it of f and start again.”
the people of Lima that we were living with and near and appreciating the opportunity to get to know. This is civilization, for 14 million people.” The huge expanse of the city and the complicated mass of public transport — the Carpenter-Schumacher family relied on public transportation almost exclusively during their time in Lima — meant tr aveling to visit the artisans was a huge part of the job. “Routinely, it would take a couple hours getting there, and we’d spend a couple hours with the artisans, and then spend a couple hours getting back,” says Alison. “That was just how it was. You were just sitting on a bus with everybody else sitting on a bus.” Their home base was Manos Amigas, a small operation founded by a brother and sister — Yannina and Roberto Meza — and their foreign-born spouses. A few women are employed part-time at the organization, but the two families take on the bulk of the work. These two families live in an apartment in the same building where the Carpenter-Schumacher family were living – and their office was just across the street. During their time in Peru, Alison and Sam split a work-share position, assisting Yannina and Roberto in the office, managing their exports, visiting the artisans and even building the organization a new website. And there’s a lot to do. Manos Amigas works with more than 70 family workshops and six artisan associations, and donates 20 percent of its profits to social welfare projects including scholarships and a food program for poor youth in Peru.* “Our main project was doing these stories,” Sam says. “If we do a day of artisan visits, visiting two or three workshops in a
Several weeks passed and Yannina [Meza of Manos Amigas] started wondering where Zoila’s order was. It was past due, and she was surprised she hadn’t heard from her. She called and Zoila recounted what had happened. Yannina assured her that she would talk to the client and get more time to complete the order. “But I can’t finish the order. I don’t know how to do the eyes,” Zoila told her. “Oscar did that.”
Zoila Davila and Ruth Palomino Three years ago, [Zoila’s son] Oscar was helping Zoila finish an order when he decided to go hang out on the beach for the afternoon. “I’ll paint the eyes when I get back,” he told Zoila. Hours passed and Oscar didn’t return. Oscar had drowned. He was 27 years old.
Zoila eventually somehow finished the eyes and was surprised when Yannina kept calling her to inform her of new orders every two weeks or so. As this was far more frequent than usual, she thought she knew where they were coming from: “Oscar is sending us these orders.” Ruth’s figures do not have eyes or detail work on their faces. An homage to her late brother?
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day, it would take us several days to compile our notes and cull our photos from several hundred, then place them within the stor y. We edited each other’s work. It would take us about a week to create the story.” They also helped create a catalogue for the non-profit. It organizes the goods that Manos Amigas offers from artisans into a much easier format for potential clients (like Global Gifts and Ten Thousand Villages, another fair trade organization) to select from. When speaking to me about their time in Peru, Sam and Alison trade words back and forth about their travels, finishing each other thoughts easily. It is obvious that the sabbatical, although officially set up for Sam’s job, was truly a family experience. They returned rejuvenated and ready to impact Indianapolis positively with the lessons from their travels.
What to know before holiday shopping “I came back feeling so relaxed,” Sam says. “You have this different pace of life in Peru — I didn’t have that sense of rush, rush, rush. I was on this high [when I returned], but I’m kind of back to my old ways. It’s a different culture. There’s not so much go, go, go.” Operating a nonprofit often necessitates a “go, go, go” mentality. Global Gifts depends on more than 100 volunteers to maintain their operation. It’s hard work — but every volunteer I’ve spoken to seems to consider their time at Global Gifts a gift to themselves. “[It’s rewarding] knowing we are helping women send their children to school, knowing we are helping families put food on the table, knowing women have status in communities they would otherwise not have status in simply because they can br ing in money to the household,” says founding member and current board member Liechty. Volunteers and board members like Liechty have spent the last several weeks preparing for the holiday rush; the stores are flush with shoppers ready to find the perfect gift for their mothers, teachers, siblings, friends, loved ones. It’s the perfect place to find something special. “I wish people knew that fair trade is just
as fashionable and affordable as Target or any other big box store nine times out of 10,” volunteer Beth Sturiano says. “It’s so easy these days to get handmade, beautiful and unique gifts that also come with an amazing back story— that’s fair trade in 2012.” Sturiano found volunteering at Global Gifts a way to continue helping people in developing countries after finishing her term in the Peace Corps. “Though I’m living in the U.S., volunteering at Global Gifts makes me feel like I’m making a contribution, even if it’s a small one, to help people out of po verty — even to teach our I ndy customers about the rest of the world. I think that ’s what Global Gifts does for the world and for Indy: It promotes cross-cultural education,” says Sturiano. “I think Global Gifts can teach people to shop with a conscience,” says volunteer Maribeth Ables. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to buy pretty things, but why not help someone sustain a living while doing so?” Sam and Alison know big things are coming for the store and their family. Sam hints at the opening of a four th Global Gifts location in Indiana in 2014. One of Alison’s goals is to maintain her Spanish skills, not just for her own benefit, but to preserve Simon’s burgeoning bilingualism. And they’ll try to discover ways Global Gifts can work even more closely with the artisans they met in Peru and others like them around the world.
Back in Peru In the end, it all comes back to F ermín Vilcapoma, the Peruvian artisan. “How amazing that Fermín was in Indiana and saw his products displayed and sold at [our] store, and a year later [we are] at his workshop, seeing where the products he sells originate and how they are created,” Sam wrote days after meeting Vilcapoma and discovering their connection. “It felt like finding the missing link of a riddle I had forgotten to solve.” *Details on Manos Amigas provided by SERRV, a nonprofit worldwide trade and development organization.
Rosa Pariona Antonio Rosa Pariona produces small stuffed animals made from different types of wool: alpaca and sheep, for example. The animals are common Peruvian animals like guinea pigs, vicuñas, llamas, rabbits, and chicks. She also makes hats and gloves, throw rugs, and seat cushions from the same wool. “Anything that can be made from wool and skins, I make. I can sew anything!” After her husband began to abuse her, Rosa and her nine children moved to Lima with nothing but the clothes on their back. They lived in an empty house while Rosa began to scrape together a little money, before unsafe behavior in their neighborhood drove them out. They spent a year living on the hillside, with no utilities or shelter while building
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Top: Sam and Simon with Rosana Pariona, a ceramicist. Left to Right, Daniel Novoa (an artisan to whom Global Gifts has donated $1,500 to help him r ebuild his workshop after it burned down), Yannina Meza (director of Manos Amigas), Luigi (of Libero Mundo - an Italian fair trade wholesaler) and Sam Carpenter. Middle: Simon makes friends quickly with another boy at an event in Chorillos in southern Lima. This event was part of a Manos Amigas supported effort to provide meals for hungry kids; Ernesto Arango’s nativity ornaments. Bottom: Simon and his best friend, Dieuwe, playing in a Lima park; Alison puts customs stickers on boxes, preparing them for shipment to the US.
their home. But after the house was built, an earthquake destroyed it, and almost buried the family with it. And, to make matters worse, when Rosa and her children went to the clinic to treat their injuries, all of their belongings were stolen. But when Ten Thousand Villages ordered 10,000 stuffed alpacas, Rosa was given enough money to begin building another house for her family. “He took a chance on me, giving me that money without really knowing me. I was really grateful.” Soon, she was able to build a workroom with a small store in front where she could showcase her wares. She remarried and expanded her business, eventually hiring nine workers. Now, Manos Amigas is her primary client. “I appreciate that Manos Amigas
immediately pays me, since then I can go back and immediately pay my workers. They always give me an advance, too, without asking.” Rosa can point to very specific ways that her life has changed and improved since she has worked with Manos Amigas. Going from sleeping on cardboard boxes with nine children, with no support from her ex-husband, to building a home and workshop, running a successful business and ensuring that all her children were educated as well as learning the family trade, even after having had to restart from scratch several times … Rosa is resilient!
From Peru to Indianapolis: The Fair Trade Chain Artisan in the country of origin Global Gifts of fers products from Peru, Mexico, India, N epal and more than 36 other countries.
RU PE
Exporter
Name Name 4747 Meridian Street Indianapolis, IN 46081
Name Name 4747 Meridian Street Indianapolis, IN 46081
Name Name 4747 East 78th Street Indianapolis, IN 46278
These exporters may be a business committed to fair trade principles (such as Manos Amigas) but also may just as likely be an NGO (non profit) or it may be an artisan lead cooperative. Regardless, these organizations are dedicated to fair trade principles and helping individual artisans reach a broader market for their products while at the same time assuring that they are working within and being paid through fair trade standards.
Name Name 4747 East 78th Street Indianapolis, IN 46278
Name Name 4747 East 78th Street Indianapolis, IN 46278
Name Name 4747 Meridian Street Indianapolis, IN 46081
(Manos Amigas)
Manos Amigas not only pays fair trade wages – they of fer their artisans payment advances of 50 percent, which allows them to maintain production and pay their staf f promptly.
Wholesaler EITHER SMALL: Some smaller fair trade wholesalers, that have product from one particular region or area within a specific country, may also serve as the facilitator for export to the US and Europe. For example, an organization like Global Mamas which works with women in Ghana, purchase items directly from artisans and then resell them to retailers like Global Gifts. In this instance there are 4 links to the chain. Artisan, wholesaler , retailer, customer.
He organized a group of artisans in Lurín, his far-southern neighborhood in Lima, in 2008 so that they can work collectively to penetrate more markets and increase their capacity to handle bigger orders. He organizes and delivers capacity building trainings on things like designs, market trends, or accounting.
Global Gifts is interested in exploring how we can work more closely with artisan cooperatives and fair trade exporters. This would allow us to build stronger relationships with artisans and bring even more value of the items we sell to the artisans.
LOBA
L
He makes tiny retablos inside eggshells and recently, granadilla skins. He was walking along the beach when he found an open granadilla on the ground and it occurred to him that he could develop a product made out of its dried skin.
Retailer
IF T
G
When he was 8 years old, his father died. His mother supported the family by weaving and dying wool. Ernesto learned his craft as a young child, starting at age 9 when he could no longer attend school because of terrorist violence in his hometown.
S
Ernesto Arango
OR LARGE: Other larger fair trade wholesalers such as T en Thousand Villages and SERR V are more likely to work with a fair trade exporter . This is because they purchase products from dif ferent regions from many different countries. They do not have the resources to work closely with individual artisans and there for they rely on fair trade exporters.
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Top: Workers in Pablo Hurtado’s workshop carve designs on gour ds; Alejandro Hurtado in his stor eroom of gourds Middle: Ernesto Valladares explains the process of making Chulucanas pottery to Alison; Eugenio Medina and Geralmina Salome, carved gourd artisans, in their workshop in Huancayo. Bottom: Alejandro and Victoria Hurtado hold several gourds which show the different stages of carving and burning; Alison, Simon, and Sam in Arequipa, Peru.
(Ten Thousand Villages, SEERV)
A FAIR TRADE STORE
(Global Gifts)
Customer Customers can be assured when they’re shopping at fair trade stores like Global Gifts that the artisans who crafted their purchase are being paid fair wages.
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY SAM CARPENTER
(You!)
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