Each year, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) – our parent organization – sends school kits to students and teachers in developing countries.

Not only do refugees and displaced people appreciate these practical gifts, but those who have experienced natural disasters also receive them with joy.

Sharing what we have is a way of showing that we are aware of the suffering of others and want to respond. In 2007, MCC distributed 131,192 school kits to places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, North Korea and Serbia.


School Kit Contents (new items only, please)
• 4 spiral or perforated notebooks (about 21.5cm x 27cm / 8.5” x 10.5” and 70-80 sheets/140-160 pages - more info)
• 4 unsharpened pencils
• 1 ruler (flat, flexible plastic; indicating both 30cm and 12”)
• 12 coloured pencils (in packaging)
• 1 large pencil eraser

School kits are distributed in a useful double drawstring cloth bag, which you may sew yourself or pick up at your local Ten Thousand Villages store. You may also simply donate the contents and have us fill a bag for you.Completed school kits can be dropped off at any Ten Thousand Villages location or at one of MCC’s drop-off locations.For more information, please visit MCC’s website.

Canadian Network for International Surgery

The CNIS is a nationwide non-profit organization that promotes surgical care through surgical and obstetrical skills training.

They are committed to the control of the injury pandemic that is responsible for the death of more than 5 million people every year.

Partnering with CNIS to support our neighbours in Africa, Ten Thousand Villages' West Broadway store will be at the African Market on:

Saturday August 29 Noon - 6 pm 1985 West Broadway (off Maple)

Try African Face-Painting or
Zambian Wall Murals
Learn to say hello in Swahili or string beads
Enjoy African fashion and art
Play drums, watch, shop, dance or sit and enjoy

Free Admission
Canadian Network for International Surgery
Info: 604-739-4708
www.cnis.ca

There are 70 million primary-school-aged children who are too poor to afford an education. What would it be like to experience life from this vantage point? Ever wonder what it must feel like to be so disadvantaged?

In partnership with the Amarok Society (Canadian Compassion in Action Abroad) Ten Thousand Villages' West Broadway location presents a unique opportunity to meet author G.E.M. Munro on Friday September 4th.

Book signing will be from 6:30 to 7:30 and the reading / discussion will be from 7:30 to around 8:00.

Take a rare journey into the real slums of South East Asia in a book of short stories written in the words of the the the active poor.

The Backbone of Production

In many cultures around the world women continue to be thought of as unproductive members of society. Their contributions are undervalued because it is assumed the tasks they perform require no effort beyond their biological aptitudes. The roles women adopt are largely subordinated and gender ascribed in accordance with oppressive patriarchal conventions.

In most underdeveloped countries women are treated as second-class citizens. Whereas on the one hand men are considered to be the breadwinners and representatives of the family, on the other hand, women are merely considered to be dependents. It is presumed that men need to work to support families while women’s salaries function as supplements to the household’s income. The long hours and tedious tasks comprising the bulk of women’s work are all chores that women learn from one another within the domestic sphere. Since the general public is not aware of the level of training required in learning gendered duties, it is assumed that these acquired abilities are innate characteristics of femininity.

As the fundamental goal within the capitalistic system is to attain the advantage over competition, the determining factor invariably lies within the cost of production. By manipulating economies on a global scale, investors are able to exploit resources over several markets within interconnected webs of networks. Epoch technological changes in transportation and communications have combined to effectively shrink distances and conceptions of time. The constructed subordination of women has effectively created an ‘ace card’ for transnationals. As cheap, nimble and disposable, the work that women do allows global corporations to benefit in terms of price, quality and control.

Third world countries form a sort of fantasyland for investors, as the prevailing invisibility of women’s work has contributed to the justifications of comparatively low-cost systems of production. Manufacturers continue to pay women workers less than the cost of living knowing that female labourers are regarded as unskilled an there is no obligation to pay workers full wages.

Female labourers are stereotyped as nimble-fingered which suggests that their knack for working with fine equipment is an inherent part of their biological make-up. Socialization within traditional cultures undervalues the work that women do by constructing it to be effortless. The task that women perform in domestic spheres require dexterity, discipline, and patience. Although such proficiencies remain unrecognized by employers and society,

these attributes are easily transferred to industrial settings where the majority of women’s work on assembly lines is comparably demanding. The capacity for making spatial assessments and the capability to endure ceaseless and monotonous work inevitably combine to create a subservient workforce for industrial forces.

Women form a ‘reserve army’ of labour for capitalists who are able to hire and fire at their discretion Confirmation of women’s dispensability is based upon the idea that they need to leave work for childbirth, which has been used as a pretext for assigning temporary employee status. Similarly, the instability of a female workforce leaves employers with flexibility, which affords them the ability to layoff staff when demands are slow, while still guaranteeing that there will be a workforce available when new orders are received.

To rejuvenate an aging workforce women are encourage to quit when they get beyond their prime. At other times, false claims are made requiring the dismissal of employees who are not able to maintain production quotas because of deteriorating performance. Inability to keep up with assembly production is quite often a consequence of employment conditions.

There are several documented cases where managers have been caught gradually adjusting the speed of conveyor lines so that the incremental changes would not be detected. Women work ten to twelve hours days with few breaks to go to the washroom. Consequently there is a tendency for women to develop bladder problems form not being able to use the washroom often enough. Moreover women suffer from headaches and eye complaints from being trapped breathing toxic chemicals from plastics and dusty air.

From the 1950’s, women in developing countries have experienced a major social revolution. Many have gained their new sense of autonomy at an extremely high price. Although they have been able to gain employment, it has most often been under appalling conditions. Despite the argument that women’s roles have been transformed form representing a burden on families to representing an asset, earnings they receive do not award them greater status within their communities.

Increasingly women workers in developing countries have become conscious of the glaring gap between their real experiences and notions promised by ideas like the ‘trickle-down’ effect. Especially disturbing for these women are claims of economic progress during periods such as East Asia’s ‘golden age of growth’, largely unattainable within their daily experiences.

The major dilemma facing the international community is how to help women in the context of export-oriented industries. The difficulty lies in the side-effects of action. For if people boycott materials produced in emerging nations in the hopes of having a positive affect on women’s lives, it is likely workers would be relegated to even worse working conditions the informal sector. The only viable solution is for people to continue to instruct themselves about the truth behind mechanisms of global pricing systems. By being vigilantly aware of the truth of ridiculously cheap mass products, consumers become able to demand responsibly made commodities. Citizens demanding fairly traded products reinforce an equitable global economy by reclaiming conscious control of their spending power.

You're Invited to a Community Picnic!!!

Green Drinks' Picnic

Tuesday, July 28th 6 PM - 9 PM

Jericho Park

Eastern pond picnic area

ABOUT GREEN DRINKS INTERNATIONAL

Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

At such events, invariably there is a lively mixture of people from non-government organizations (NGOs), academia, government and businesses. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say "Are you green?" and they will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there's always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals, and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and it would be great to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

Green Drinks website

ABOUT THE PICNIC

This is a BYOE (Bring Your Own Everything) event. There will be no cooking or washing facilities at the site, so please plan for a basic cold food picnic. The theme of this mission, should you choose to accept it, is local and sustainable food, so bring something appropriate if you can; enough to share if you're willing... and, hey, there might be a contest. Details forthcoming.

Basics to bring:

• Yourself and any interested friends or family.

• Your own food, drink, and necessary dining implements: plates, cutlery, etc.

• Willingness to pick up all of your refuse when you leave.Other items they'd love someone to bring:• Games or sports equipment (volleyball & net, badminton, bocce, etc).

• A BBQ that you are willing to share – please get in touch with Green Drinks if you can bring this for sure.• Non-amplified musical instruments and your singing voice.What not to bring:• Glass drink containers.

• Alcohol – parks officers don't want to see that.

• Amplified music or public address systems.• Advertising.

• Electricity.

• Structures, fences, poles, tents, stages, etc.

These are Vancouver Parks restrictions so please see their website for further details.How to get to the Green Drinks picnic site:They'll be in the same place as previous years, which is not far from where the back of the main stage at the Folk Festival will have been the week before. See the Vancouver Parks website for details & map of "Jericho Pond".Here are the transit options:

• Bus 4 – get off 1 or 2 stops west of Alma along 4th Ave.

• Buses 7, 44, or 84 – get off at Alma & 4th and walk a few minutes westward.

• Buses 9, 17 or 99 B-line – get off at Alma & Broadway and walk north to 4th and then west to Jericho.

Potluck Dinner at Kits Community House

July 8th, 2009 6:00-8:00pm - ALL AGES - EVERYONE WELCOME

Bring a vegetarian dish to share, enjoy a casual atmosphere & get to know your neighbours!

July Potluck Topic:

What is FAIR TRADE?

Learn more about people from around the world & the difference you make as a responsible consumer.

Presentation & discussion with staff and volunteers from Fair Trade Gift Store "Ten Thousand Villages".

BIG BANG!

BIG BANG!!
CIRCLING THE EARTH WITH DRUMMING ON WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY 09 MAY 09

Fair Trade Day this year was a great success!
http://www.worldfairtradeday09.org/

Chalk for Change

On Saturday May 16th there was much fun and cookies to be had as creative youngsters raising money to go to camp this summer chalked a mural of the Ten Thousand Villages logo on our sidewalk .

With the support of this program, last year these kids were able to raise enough money to subsidize a number of youth. Businesses, parents, customers and local kids all got inovled to support this fun, unique and colourful initiative.

Embracing the essence of reaching out to help the economically disadvantaged we were able to help youngsters in our community to go to summer camp. It just feels good to help others help themselves! It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Canadian Fair Traders Receive Recognition

One of the most important ways to change the world is to lead by example. This is what we are doing by partnering with organizations like Cocoa Camino who produce the cocoa in La Siembra products.

This picture is a photo of the visit to Ottawa paid by Cocoa Camino workers who were celebrating the award that was given to the c0-operative.

In April La Siembra, a co-operative in Ottawa-Gatineau won the WorldBlu "Worldwide Award for the Most Democratic Workplaces".

WorldBlu Founder and CEO Traci Fenton notes that "organizations that practice democracy in the workplace are creating the businesses of the future and will ultimately build a more sustainable and democratic world".

I am so happy to know that I am a part of this relationship even though I live across the country and I have never met these people. I know that the volunteers in our store in Vancouver are helping to make a difference in the lives of these people by enabling them to access our neighbourhood. It's really great to know that we are all connected!

Check out the Worldblu website:
http://www.worldblu.com/worldblu-list?company=nixonmcinnes

Check out the Cocoa Camino's homepage:
http://www.cocoacamino.com/

Mennonite Central Committee Annual Fair

Several volunteers at the store located on West Broadway were really excited about the MCC annual fair last Sept. in Abbotsford.

Here, volunteer Betty Bartel is standing with Olga Nickel, manager of Langley store who had a large TTVillages "store" set up at the 2 day event.

How Do We Reduce Our Own Footprints?

Hi all – I had an idea and I’m looking for feedback.

Since it is a new fiscal year and we are all committed to keeping to budget and reducing our environmental footprint, I propose that we develop a “footprint budget”.

Expenses for utilities, supplies – paper especially – printer toner, printer rolls etc. could have budget targets for the year. We can take our 2009 budget for these categories and set a reduction goal, which can be measured through monitoring costs savings for different categories. This would be an effective way for everyone to be aware of what they use and save money at the same time.

One example that we have started at West Vancouver, is cutting down paper usage by emailing product information to customers instead of printing it off at the point of sale. We have had success doing this already. This one small change in behavior saves paper, puts the customer onto our email list, allows the customer to save the information on his/her computer, and allows us to begin a dialog about the ways people can begin to save resources in the spirit which fair trade promotes.

We could start this officially April 1st to begin with our Reason 3 – Fair trade protects the environment. I am working on a plan and guide and would be happy to share ideas with anyone who is interested. Let’s do more than more than throw our cardboard into the recycling bin and change a few light bulbs.

Let’s really challenge ourselves to go beyond just talking and start doing.

African Peace Festival

In August 2008, Sarah (a volunteer who soon became our Part-time Sales Associate) and I attended the African Peace Festival.

We brought all kinds of neat trinkets to the Roundhouse in Yale Town, Vancouver.

On display here you can see a Calabash Beaded Rattle, some Cheetah-styled Bracelets from Kenya as well as a terrific Putamayo CD called "Women of Africa".

Canada Day on Granville Island!!!

This year the Broadway Store was privileged enough to be invited to celebrate Canada Day on Granville Island at the Indian Mela Festival.

On the right, as our Japanese intern Seiko and I were promoting Fair Trade Awareness to the public Varia (in the back) was taking care of the business transactions.



Being successful at off-site sales takes a lot of team work and enthusiasm.

It was an excellent opportunity to speak with Vancouver locals about the importance of choosing wisely when shopping by supporting Fair Trade.

What better way to celebrate Canada Day?

Meet My New Friend from Old Delhi!

This is a really sweet young woman that I met who grew up in Old Delhi. I had the good fortune to meet her at the Ten Thousand Villages' Managers Conference that we had in Calgary in May 2008.

Shaista has really great energy. After our meeting in Calgary we actually brought her to Vancouver so that people in our community would have a chance to meet a real live artisan who makes some of the handicrafts that we sell in our stores across Canada.

It is really neat watching her work. Here she is the middle of embroidering tiny beads onto little change purses.

Hand-in-Hand with the Environment

Fair Trade just makes sense because at its most fundamental level it takes into consideration SOCIOLOGICAL factors in determining the bottom-line.

I am so excited to be a part of the Fair Trade movement because it means that I am a part of the solution.

Being involved with Ten Thousand Villages means that I am not only linked to our artisans partners but I am also connected to other industry leaders like Level Ground which is a Direct Fair Trade coffee company. (This is their CEO's wheels to-and-from work which he let me take for a spin when we went on a tour of his roastery in Victoria).

If the World Were a Village

What if we imagined the whole population of the world as a village of just 100 people?

- 61 Asians (21 from China and 17 from India)
- 13 Africans
- 12 Europeans
- 8 from S America, Central America & Caribbean
- 5 from Canada and the USA
- 1 Oceanian
- 52 females; 48 males
- 70 non-whites; 30 whites
- 32 Christians
- 20 Muslims
- 13 Hindus
- 89 heterosexuals; 11 homsexuals

- 59% of the entire world's wealth is in the hands of only 6 pp
- 50 pp live on $2 per day and 25 live on $1 per day
- 15 pp produce more than half of the CO2 emissions
- 25 pp consume more than 75% of the energy
- 18 pp do not have access to nearby clean water
- 40 have no access to adequate sanitation, ie. sewage disposal
- 80 pp live in poor quality housing
- 32 breathe unhealthy polluted air
- 50 pp suffer from malnutrition
- 17 pp are illiterate
- 20 inhabitants control 86% of the GNP and 74% of the telphone lines
- 20 pp have 87% of the vehicles and 84% of the paper in use
- 24 pp do not have electricity
- 9 pp have access to the internet
- only 1 person has a college/university education
- 1 person dies and 3 children are born into the world each year
- the population of the village would be 133 by 2025

Reference:
If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith sku#2310034
United Nations and World Bank Statistics

We Depend on our Volunteers

As a non-profit business, Ten Thousand Villages depends on the imagination, innovation and dedication of over a thousand Canadians who have caught the vision of fair trade.




Volunteers are encouraged to learn as much as possible about our handcrafted products in order to build an appreciation for the people and processes behind them.


Being able to fulfill the mission of Ten Thousand Villages enables talented artisans to provide their families with food, shelter and education.