For 20 years, One Honest World has supplied a spot the place folks from almost 50 international locations can promote their merchandise in Salem. Its founders say their dedication to serving to impoverished folks construct their independence, an everyday circulation of latest objects and group assist have been key to the group’s longevity.
Desta Sirrine, assistant supervisor at One Honest World on Northeast Court docket Road in Salem. (Ardeshir Tabrizian/Salem Reporter)
When Ann Niedereh and three different Salem ladies opened the honest commerce store now generally known as “One Honest World” in 2002, they didn’t precisely know what they had been getting themselves into.
None had prior expertise in honest commerce, retail or enterprise, however all had been certain by the identical core precept – serving to folks in probably the most impoverished areas of the world have the ability to earn a good dwelling by offering a spot to promote the merchandise they make.
The primary and solely licensed not-for-profit honest commerce group in Salem, One Honest World will have fun its twentieth anniversary Tuesday from 11 a.m. to five p.m. at its store at 474 Court docket St. N.E.
Those that attend can get reductions and prizes with purchases, take heed to reside music on the storefront, view a reminiscence photograph show of the store’s early years and spend the afternoon with a llama.
The group sells objects made in almost 50 totally different international locations. They embrace artisan-crafted house décor, candles, jewellery, musical devices, greeting playing cards, baskets, espresso and chocolate.
Niedereh, president of One Honest World’s board of administrators, stated 75% of the artisans they work with are ladies in poverty. For a lot of, she stated, “their decisions in life are: do I urge on the road or do I change into a prostitute?”
Niedereh stated offering a market for the issues they make permits them to fulfill their different wants, educate their kids and enhance their general high quality of life. One girl advised the group it’s the rationale she’s in a position to eat greater than as soon as a day.
“We’re not doing charity, we’re serving to to construct folks’s independence of their societies,” she stated.
To be thought of honest commerce, she stated merchandise should be made by people who find themselves paid pretty, work in respectable circumstances, and would in any other case be impoverished. There additionally can’t be little one labor, and the supplies used must be environmentally sound.
Bowls, baskets, incense, candles and different objects on the market at One Honest World, made by artisans from impoverished areas around the globe. (Ardeshir Tabrizian/Salem Reporter)
The thought got here to co-founder and Salem resident Ellen Chambers when one other native honest commerce group, the Self-Assist Crafts store in Dallas, closed after about 15 years. The store was run by Mennonite missionaries, all volunteers who wished to supply a market for impoverished folks.
In search of to fill that hole, the founders of the Salem retailer had the identical mission, although they don’t seem to be tied to any specific church. “We’re a group group,” Niedereh stated.
For its first 9 years, the Salem store operated underneath the identify 10,000 Villages, a Pennsylvania-based group that works with artisans around the globe and identifies those that might most profit from having a market within the U.S. for his or her merchandise.
10,000 Villages was a useful useful resource early on for the founders of the Salem store in establishing a not-for-profit group. “We had been sort of naive about what we had been entering into,” Niedereh stated.
“We didn’t know that we couldn’t do it, so we simply did it. And all alongside we had been at all times trying to see, ‘Is there sufficient assist from the group for this type of group?’” she stated. “Salem and the encompassing group have been fantastic supporters of the mission of this enterprise.”
Since 2009, the store has since labored independently as One Honest World however follows the identical requirements – it buys solely honest trade-certified merchandise, however buys from different importers along with 10,000 Villages.
“There are numerous organizations now that import honest commerce merchandise. That did not was once the case 20 or 30 years in the past,” Niedereh stated.
Along with volunteers, One Honest World has one full-time worker, supervisor Kim Baldwin, and a part-time assistant supervisor and volunteer coordinator, Desta Sirrine, each of whom have been on the store for over 10 years.
The keys to the group’s longevity, Niedereh stated, has been the dedication of workers and volunteers, stocking new merchandise each month and broad assist from the Salem group. “With out that, we’re nothing,” she stated.
The store has longtime regulars that come again time and time once more. “However every single day, actually every single day, there’s somebody who is available in who has not been within the retailer earlier than, perhaps as a result of they are a customer to Salem, or simply that they have not have not shopped downtown,” she stated.
The Tuesday occasion shall be along with Salem’s Make Music Day, which has about 100 bands, orchestras, singers and musicians slated to carry out at greater than 30 areas across the metropolis.
Caesar the No-Drama Llama, a remedy llama and fixture at Salem-area occasions, shall be at One Honest World from 4 p.m. to five p.m. through the celebration.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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