Witnessing Fair Trade In Thailand

[temi]

Itâ??s common for us to hear stories about how fair trade organisations and co-ops have positively affected the craftsmen and farmers making goods in the developing world; little is said about the people making it happen, and the affect it has on their lives. Hereâ??s the story of Rebecca Spender â?? a design graduate who â??fellâ?? into the world of charity quite by chance, and whose life has been changed by what she has seen. Spender is the first to admit that she did not expect to end up working in the charity sector. Although she didnâ??t like the thought of â??selling her soulâ??, she had almost given in to the inevitable â?? that sheâ??d move to London and join the cutthroat fight for city experience that most design graduates find themselves in. When she was offered a post working for fair-trade company Tearcraft, she took it because it was good experience, it paid her a decent wage, and it meant she didnâ??t have to do any job hunting. It was purely chance that it would grow into the job of her dreams. On her first trip abroad as the sole product designer for charity organisation Tearcraft, Rebecca visited a small community in Thailand where she met a man named Oun Wongwiang. At the age of 8, Wongwiang had contracted leprosy and was sent to live at the bottom of his familyâ??s garden, where his only human contact was when his sister bought him a bag of rice each day. After spending his childhood years ill and outcast, Oun was cured at the age of 18 at the McKean Rehabilitation Centre, a partner of Tearcraft, and he was taught to craft wood. Although his fingers are gnarled and worn, his work is exceptional. Many years after his visit to the rehab centre, his talent as a craftsman had earned him his own business, employing 80 people to create products that are sold around the world. The fact that her designs were helping an entire community to survive in abstract poverty made Rebecca fall in love with her new job. â??For a small investment by Tearcraft to help one man,â?? she says, â??a whole community have benefited. Itâ??s that chain of events and peopleâ??s personal stories that motivate me in my work.â?? As the sole designer for Tearcraft, Rebeccaâ??s job is not that of an ordinary 26-year-old graduate. While her former classmates are battling through the unforgiving world of commercial design, Rebecca is flying around from country to country helping the worldâ??s poorest artisans. She finds colour schemes and materials which will sell well, advises them on what is fashionable in the European markets, and gives them every chance to create things that will earn them enough money to live. â??Itâ??s such a satisfying feeling to see hundreds of my products laid out in a workshop or drying in the sunshine and to know that the manufacture of that product has provided decent jobs for people. For me, I love making things with my hands so I can understand how much the artisans must enjoy their work.â?? â??Towns and cities arenâ??t built on what we do. But sometimes you go and see a house built using the money from a workerâ??s wages, and you see what we can achieve and how much it means to people. It makes you feel incredible.â??

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