Ending the Drug War Tragedy: From Honduras to NYC

Note: This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post

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Last June, I traveled to Honduras to confer with civil society leaders about organizing a five-nation, “end the drug war” caravan — all the way from Central America to New York City.

The “caravan” aims to stir debate in places profoundly damaged by the drug war and to bring people and their stories from those regions along the route to New York City just prior to the convening of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drug Policy (UNGASS) next April.

We knew this trip was guaranteed to be challenging. Honduras has been hit very hard by the drug war. The dramatic profits available to those who traffic in prohibited drugs have fueled the growth of criminal organizations, spurred violence, underwritten pervasive corruption, and bolstered the institutionalized impunity that enables all of it.

But there was a big, hopeful surprise awaiting us in Honduras: the stunning emergence of a powerful civil revolt against government corruption that took to the streets while we were there, and that has been calling for the President’s resignation ever since.

As I was preparing to travel I had read of allegations that funds were pilfered from the country’s social security and health system. This seemed really bad, but I was so focused on travel details and our safety that I failed to understand the depth of discontent that this would unleash.

We were, after all, mapping out an itinerary that included San Pedro Sula — currently one of the world’s most violent cities. From there we’d head to a community meeting with Garifuna leaders, seven hours (and hundreds of kilometers east of my comfort zone) in the sweltering, mafia-dominated lowlands near the Caribbean coast.

On reflection, it’s not really surprising that discontent has boiled over in Honduras. Extreme poverty is widespread and just a few oligarchs control most of the country’s lands and wealth.

Decades of a heavy U.S. military footprint in the country — and more recently, Hillary Clinton’s back-channel support of a 2009 military coup — have encouraged the enemies of democracy in Honduras.

Since the 2009 coup, gang violence has surged — adding to the economic pressures that prompt thousands of desperate families to emigrate, or sometimes even send their kids north alone, despite the terrible risks involved.

But the trigger for this summer’s peaceful uprising was the revelation that hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from the national health system, much of it channeled directly to ruling party political campaigns. Thousands of Hondurans died needlessly due to shortages of medical personnel and medicines. These are the facts behind the outrage that has propelled multitudes of discontented, torch-carrying citizens into the streets.

As we traveled and spoke with organizations and leaders across Honduras we encountered deep opposition to the militarization and corruption of public life that have accompanied the drug war.

We were especially interested in speaking with Garifuna and other indigenous leaderswho have been among the most outspoken critics of the drug war — even as they have confronted smugglers encroaching on their ancestral lands.

The Garifuna are descendants of escaped African slaves and indigenous peoples who intermarried and settled along Central America’s Atlantic Coast in the 1700’s. They were once isolated, but in recent years have come under intense pressure from unscrupulous tourist development and sprawling African Palm plantations.

Last year, Garifuna in the tiny settlement of Vallecito found a drug-smuggling airstrip built and being operated on their territory.

Miriam Miranda, leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) stepped in to document and protest the intrusion. OFRANEH pressured the government to shut down the airfield. The army eventually complied, dynamiting large holes to disable the dirt runway.

But that was not the end of the story. The smugglers returned and started filling the hole with logs and dirt.

When OFRANEH leaders began to document the refurbishing of the airfield, they were seized at gunpoint by sicarios on motorcycles. They were released long hours later, but only because other members of their party had eluded the gunmen, alerted media, and triggered an international campaign for their freedom.

Now, a year later, OFRANEH boldly maintains a permanent encampment on the site to keep traffickers away.

This year, as protests were mounting across the country, OFRANEH held their national leadership meeting at the remote encampment. They invited us to come there to talk with them about working together to end the drug war.

We agreed about a lot of things: The drug war is a disaster and it is past time to break the taboo on speaking honestly about its impact on people, families, communities, countries, and entire regions.

They explained how parasitic criminal organizations that grew from the hyper-profits of the prohibited drug trade now run other enterprises, like extortion rackets and human trafficking. They launder ill-gotten funds through investments in mining, hotels, agriculture and other superficially legitimate industries.

The OFRANEH leaders are interested in promoting an international discussion of how we could starve the beasts of the drug war through realistic regulation of drugs that aims to dramatically reduce the illegal trade.

We talked about how human rights, public health, and harm reduction practices should be the guideposts of any new, reformed drug policies. But to be clear, no one thought ending the drug war or dismantling the powerful criminal organizations whose money and influence derives from it would be easy. Nor will it be easy for Hondurans to restore democracy and curb the power of the oligarchy.

Open public debate and scrutiny is needed to reveal the truth about the drug war: it is a deadly, decades-long international mistake that cannot be solved by any country on its own. Pragmatic drug policy reforms require concerted international cooperation.

Such reforms will not resolve all the deep tensions roiling Honduras and other countries, but freezing the drug war profit machine via incremental regulation of today’s illicit markets is a critical step toward reducing violence and weakening the networks of corruption and impunity that undermine democracy and deny justice.

The morning I left Honduras I took a taxi from my hotel in San Pedro Sula to the airport. I was in the mood to chat and asked the taxi driver if he ever felt scared doing his job in this most violent of cities. He told me that, “Yes,” he was often afraid and that (pointing to a police car), “the worst part is that you can’t rely on the authorities for help because many of them were working with the criminals. Do you know about the war tax (impuestos de guerra)?” he asked.

“Every business in this city”, he explained, “has to pay a tax to the gangs.”

“Everybody pays”, he emphasized.

“Whether you run a sandwich stand, a dry cleaning shop, a hotel, or a travel agency, you have to pay–or die. In our case, we have about 150 members in our taxi collective and we have to pay 10,000 Lempira [about 500 dollars] a week.”

“What terrifies me,” he continued, “is that the authorities are involved.”

“Let me explain,” he said.

“Every week we take our ‘contribution’ to the local jail. I am not joking,” he insisted.

“But it is even worse than that.” he told me. “One week we had trouble getting our payment together and we arrived late to the jail. The guards told us visiting hours were over and we could not enter. We started freaking out because a missed payment can mean sudden death. So, we called the cell phone of our contact inside the jail. A few minutes later the guards came back out and invited us in to deliver the ‘tax’ payment.”

“So,” he said, “You can see who is really running the show.”

As he dropped me off to catch my flight I was still thinking over the nightmarish implications of what he’d told me. For people trapped in this criminal maelstrom there is really no way out.

The enduring lesson of the 13 years of alcohol prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century is that, whether we approve or not, people will seek out mood-altering substances. We can regulate alcohol, but trying to eliminate it simply incentivized crime and fueled the growth of domestic mafias.

In the early 1930s the U.S. ratified an amendment to the Constitution to rectify the mistake.

Today, there is a growing consensus that the international war on drugs is a similar fool’s errand.

The United Nations Special Session next year is a good forum to push this conversation ahead, but it will take a longer, concerted effort to democratically change minds, hearts, and policies.

That’s why we will travel from Honduras to NYC next year. We invite you to join us, in-person, on-line, and around the world.

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For more information: ted(at)globalexchange.org or caravana2016@gmail.com

The following is a guest post by Hana Ivanhoe, an Engagement and Advocacy Manager with Fairfood International in its San Francisco office. Hana recently helped to launch Fairfood’s work on sugarcane production in Nicaragua, focused on improving labor conditions for the country’s overworked and underpaid sugarcane workers.

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Sugar is an essential part of almost all of my favorite snacks and drinks. From my beloved mint chocolate chip ice cream to the table sugar I shovel by the heaping spoonful into my morning coffee to the rum I use to spike my Christmas eggnog, sugarcane is a key ingredient in many of the food and beverage products that I and millions of others love and (let’s be honest) crave.

More than an ingredient in my favorite foods, sugar is also a prerequisite for my favorite hobby: baking. Since I was a little girl watching my mother knead the dough for her family heirloom sticky bun recipe with hunger in my belly and hero worship in my eyes, I’ve been hooked. It still amazes me how we can make something mouthwateringly delicious out of ingredients that on their own don’t amount to much of anything. To this day the smell of freshly whipped sugar and butter brings back some of my happiest childhood memories.

From Wholesome Childhood Memories to Modern Realities

Yet most of us know very little about how and under what conditions the sugar we consume is produced. Even some conscious consumers don’t know that many of our favorite treats and sweets are tainted by child labor and land grabs, and indirectly fund an industry characterized by abysmal working conditions, poverty and substantial health risks to workers.

Americans hear incessant commentary about the role of sugar in the obesity epidemic (certainly a significant concern), but the media hysteria that surrounds coverage of nutritional concerns contrasts sharply with the void of available information on how sugarcane is grown and the ethical and environmental calamities that plague its production. Sugar is the second ingredient in just about every Fair Trade certified chocolate bar I’ve ever bought, but often that very same sugar is not actually certified Fair Trade.

Sugarcane production around the world is frequently linked with severe human rights and environmental harms. In recent years reports have surfaced of rampant child labor at sugarcane plantations in the Philippines, a country estimated to employ 2.4 million child workers. Just last month, Oxfam unveiled the newest phase of its Behind the Brands campaign highlighting how the recent surge of the sugar markets has fueled land grabs and exploitation. Many of the world’s poor are being kicked off their own land to accommodate the growing corporate interest in capitalizing on this “sugar rush.”[3] And earlier this year, Fairfood International, the organization I work with, launched a new project to address labor conditions in the Nicaraguan sugarcane industry and, in particular, a rising epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown origin (CKDu) that disproportionately effects sugarcane workers throughout Central America.

The Growing Cost of Poor Working Conditions

Growing and harvesting sugarcane is backbreaking work. In most cases the harvest is manual and each harvest season laborers work long hours under oppressive tropical heat to cut row after row of cane. These conditions can lead to heat stroke and severe dehydration. Low wages and the piecemeal system of payment for the sugarcane harvested likely contribute further to the problem because laborers have to work more so that they can earn enough money to come close to supporting themselves and their families.

All of this comes at a cost. From 2009 to 2011 there were nine times as many deaths from CKDu in the sugar growing regions of Nicaragua as there were deaths from CKDu in the entire rest of the country. And while the exact causes of CKDu are still under investigation, there is now scientific consensus that the disease is occupational in nature and related to the brutal conditions under which the region’s sugarcane workers toil. Central American sugarcane workers might literally be working themselves to death.

Conscious Consuming Improves Lives and Livelihoods

Something must be done to change this reality and improve the lives and livelihoods of the people working to produce the foods we consume. Industry and investment are vital for economic development (particularly for the world’s poorest countries), but development must not mean increased wealth for large corporate interests at the expense of increased hardships for the poor. The wealthy multinational corporations sourcing sugar around the world must take responsibility for the miserable working conditions in their own supply chains and consumers can encourage them to do just that.

Although the Central American sugarcane industry faces seemingly intractable problems, I believe that even the smallest act, thousands of miles away, can have an impact. So why not start with your purchasing decisions? With the holidays rapidly approaching, make a note to buy sustainably sourced products for your favorite holiday recipes.

TAKE ACTION!

This Thanksgiving, as you frantically fill your shopping cart, purchase certified sustainable sugar for your famous pumpkin pie. Admittedly, it is not always easy to find these products and it may take a bit more time and effort. But maybe with a little more effort from each of us, our small acts taken together can help to give sugarcane workers thousands of miles away something to be thankful for.

Fair Harvest in the Dominican Republic

8 years ago here at Global Exchange Reality Tours we began incorporating the fair trade story into our annual departures to address disturbing truths about the global economy. Millions of farmers around the world are facing poverty and starvation because global crop prices have continued to plummet to all-time lows, a worldwide crisis exacerbating problems including malnutrition, family farm closures, and in some cases increased drug cultivation.

The tourism industry has seen a growth in both “voluntourism” and philanthropy-based travel, and in 2003 Reality Tours launched its first Fair Harvest tour. The goals; to share the story of fair trade with travelers, to offer a service learning opportunity, to support local community-based tourism initiatives as a promoter of socially responsible travel, to meet and exchange with fair trade certified cooperative farmers, and to inspire our alumni to return committed to supporting the fair trade movement in their own communities and to support our Global Exchange Fair Trade campaigns and Fair Trade craft stores.

Global Exchange Reality Tours highlight the importance of fair trade on commodity crops such as cocoa, coffee, olives, and tea as well as textiles and crafts, and contextualizes the debate between “fair trade” and “free trade” crops and products in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Palestine, India, Nepal, Rwanda and many other countries. Reality Tours provide the opportunity for participants to learn firsthand how:

fair trade producers receive a fair price – a living wage;
forced labor and exploitative child labor (and modern day slavery) are prohibited;
buyers and producers have direct long-term trade relationships;
producers have access to financial and technical assistance;
sustainable production techniques are encouraged and mandated;
working conditions are healthy and safe;
equal employment opportunities are provided for all;
all aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability.

The Fair Trade system benefits over 800,000+ farmers organized into cooperatives and unions in over 48 countries. While the complexities of each country are unique, what fair trade means for communities is often very similar. Fair Trade profits help fund basic education, health care, and general infrastructure in communities, amplifying the dignity of communities who get to stay on their land. Reality Tours fair trade themed trips provide the opportunity for farmers to share their stories with participants. Reality Tours participants who have witnessed firsthand the benefits of fair trade return from their journey inspired by the experience.

Nicaragua Woman Harvesting Coffee Beans

A Cup of Fair Coffee?
Let’s take a commodity or two as an example. The United States consumes one-fifth of all the world’s coffee, the largest consumer in the world. But few North Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as “sweatshops in the fields.”

Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis in Nicaragua, assuring consumers that the coffee they drink was purchased under fair conditions. To become Fair Trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria; paying a minimum price per pound, providing much needed credit to farmers, and providing technical assistance such as help transitioning to organic farming.

Fair Trade for coffee farmers in Matalgapa means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship. Our Fair Harvest programs to Nicaragua provide the historical context for this social and economic vulnerability and absolutely impact people’s purchasing decisions. We’ve been honored to work with the Fair Trade Cooperative CECOCAFEN for years and know that when our delegates return many choose fair trade in their cups. What if that one-fifth of global coffee drinkers all put their purchases where their values are? That would have global repercussions!

Sweet, Sweet Chocolate

Fair Cocoa Harvest in the Dominican Republic

Next, let’s look at chocolate. The six largest cocoa producing countries are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon. Cocoa has significant effects on the economy and the population in these countries. In Ghana, cocoa accounts for 40% of total export revenues, and two million farmers are employed in cocoa production. The Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer, providing 43% of the world’s cocoa. In 2000, a report by the US State Department concluded that in recent years approximately 15,000 children aged 9 to 12 have been sold into forced labor on cotton, coffee and cocoa plantations in the north of the country. A June 15, 2001 document released by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that trafficking of children is widespread in West Africa. (For ILO definitions of these labor violations, see ILO Convention 182 on Child Labor ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor.)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) followed up these reports with an extensive study of cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, directly involving over 4,500 producers. The results were released in August 2002. An estimated 284,000 children were working on cocoa farms in hazardous tasks such as using machetes and applying pesticides and insecticides without the necessary protective equipment. Many of these children worked on family farms, the children of cocoa farmers who are so trapped in poverty many make the hard choice to keep their children out of school to work. The IITA also reported that about 12,500 children working on cocoa farms had no relatives in the area, a warning sign of trafficking.

Child laborers face arduous work, as cacao pods must be cut from high branches with long-handled machetes, split open, and their beans scooped out. Children who are involved in the worst labor abuses come from countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo — nations that are even more destitute than the impoverished Ivory Coast.

Vicious Circle of Poverty

Rwanda Women's Coffee Cooperative Sorting Beans

Parents in these countries sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work once they arrive in Ivory Coast and then send their earnings home. But once separated from their families, the young boys are made to work for little or nothing. The children work long and hard — they head into the fields at 6:00 in the morning and often do not finish until 6:30 at night. These children typically lack the opportunity for education, leaving them with no way out of this cycle of poverty. The IITA noted that 66% of child cocoa workers in the Ivory Coast did not attend school. About 64% of children on cocoa farms are under age 14, meaning that the loss of an education comes at an early age for the majority of children on cocoa farms. (Watch The Dark Side of Chocolate, a powerful documentary on this issue).

Producer income remains low because major chocolate and cocoa processing companies have refused to take any steps to ensure stable and sufficient prices for cocoa producers. World cocoa prices fluctuate widely and have been well below production costs in the last decade. Though cocoa prices have shown moderate increases in the past few years, cocoa producers remain steeped in debt accumulated when prices were below production costs.

Producers typically also get only half the world price, as they must use exploitative middlemen to sell their crop. The effects of insufficient cocoa income have been exacerbated by deregulation of agriculture in West Africa, which abolished commodity boards across the region, leaving small farmers at the mercy of the market. This economic crisis forced farmers to cut their labor costs. The outcome was a downward spiral for labor in the region, and a surge in reports of labor abuses ranging from farmers pulling children out of school to work on family farms to outright child trafficking and slavery. These small farmers and their children remained trapped in a cycle of poverty, without hope for sufficient income or access to basic education or health care.

We Can Change It!
For years, US chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don’t own them. But the $13 billion chocolate industry is heavily consolidated, with just two firms — Hershey’s and M&M/Mars — controlling two-thirds of the US chocolate candy market. Surely, these global corporations have the power and the ability to reform problems in the supply chain. What they lack is the will.

At Global Exchange, we know there is a solution – supporting Fair Trade cocoa and chocolate. Fair Trade chocolate and cocoa products are marked with the “Fair Trade Certified” label. Fair Trade cocoa comes from Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Peru. Thus Reality Tours has a Cocoa Fair Harvest program in the Dominican Republic. Every year, we encourage chocolate lovers from around the world to join with our local partners from Grupo CONACADO to explore benefits of Fair Trade cocoa and sustainable harvest, renewable technology in the Dominican Republic.

Palestine Fair Olive Harvest, Group with Farmers 2009

Fair Trade Tourism is a growing segment of our socially responsible travel program here at Global Exchange. Our third Fair Harvest destination was announced in 2007 to Palestine where participants worked side by side Palestinians harvesting olives. The Fair Trade story continues to evolve and we look forward to expanding our Reality Tours programs in the years to come. There is an opportunity for those of us in the tourism industry to make a positive change in the world. Tourism can be a force for good. We can ensure tourism dollars stay to benefit the local economies of our hosts. We can highlight the stories, the struggles and aspirations of the communities we visit. Together with Reality Tours trip participants, we can be a force for fairness.

This piece was originally written by Malia Everette for Tourism Review, Tourism Magazine Review October 2010 issue.

In honor of Earth Day on April 22nd, San Francisco’s Global Exchange Store (map) is highlighting exceptional examples of recycled and sustainably harvested goods. Fair Trade Certification does not only signify living wage standards for artisans worldwide, it also means that strict environmental regulations are in place. Fair trade discourages deforestation and the use of harmful chemicals, and encourages organic farming techniques, recycling post-consumer waste, the use of sustainably harvested natural materials, and the protection of natural resources.

A family owned workshop in Cairo, Egypt produces glass vases, bowls, and votive candle holders from 100% recycled glass products. By sorting discarded glass bottles by color and melting and molding new shapes, this small fair trade company creates beautiful, functional, and environmentally friendly products.

Just in time for spring, we have new recycled magazine gifts from Vietnam! Made out of long strips of magazine that are first soaked in glue and then coiled by hand, a lively spiral pattern adorns boxes, frames, and bowls in all sizes. This project not only keeps paper out of landfills, it also provides employment for over 300 artists in South Vietnam, aiming to promote self-reliance among disadvantaged people through education and training. A percentage of profits are used to fund various social work projects in communities, dealing with social issues, clean water projects, vocational training equipment purchases, subsidized teacher wages and a scholarship fund for the artisans’ children.

While recycling keeps waste out of landfills, sustainably harvested goods – made out of natural materials – keeps materials like plastic and paper from ever being made in the first place. Fair trade celebrates products coming from nature, and what better way to celebrate Earth Day than with Mother Nature’s own gifts.

A women’s co-operative on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua is taking advantage of an abundant local raw material – pine needles – to make beautiful, environmentally friendly, baskets. Starting in 1993 with a group of twelve women, it now employs over thirty women who make their living from weaving baskets. The sale of these baskets help to build a sustainable community in an extremely impoverished part of Nicaragua. These decorative baskets are a great example of a free renewable resource that can be crafted into a piece of art!

Ahimsa, or “cruelty-free” silk is wild silk that is cultivated on forest trees. The silk is spun after the silk worm has become a moth and flown out of the cocoon, which is often not the case for mass-produced silk. It is typical for silk farmers to kill silkworms by tossing cocoons into boiling water or hot ovens before they transform into moths, so that the silk cocoons will not be damaged. Ahimsa silk thread is spun from broken cocoons, which gives a slightly different texture than undamaged silk cocoons, but does not kill any living beings in the process.

Fair Trade Federation member Sevya is using ahimsa silk for their line of fair trade silk scarves (which you can see at San Francisco’s Global Exchange Store!). Sevya is not only helping to sustain the forests and ancient cultures that live in harmony with nature, but also sustaining the lives of those producing the scarves. Sevya works with non-profits in Jharkhand, India to develop training programs for low-caste and tribal women to use foot pedal and power operated spinning and reeling machines, self-help groups where the women save money weekly in a common pool, and micro-credit operations for the cultivators, spinners, and weavers.

We encourage you to deepen your commitment to the Fair Trade principle of environmental stewardship by consuming wisely. Think about the different resources used in creating all the things around us, and whether or not you can lessen your carbon footprint with your purchases. Celebrate this Earth Day by supporting the Fair Trade movement, and stop by a Global Exchange Fair Trade Store near you for recycled, natural, and sustainable handicrafts from around the world!

This is a cross-post from our People to People blog. It’s Part 4 in an 8-Part “Giving Thanks” series, a Global Exchange exclusive highlighting individuals (chosen by Global Exchange staff members) who are contributing to our social justice work in some way. This series will culminate with a “Giving Thanks” video to be launched right here on Wednesday, November 24th. So please join us in recognizing those special individuals who are helping to make this world a better place.

Today, Global Exchange’s Zarah Patriana thanks two past Reality Tours participants, Anne Kelly and Mark Van Wormer.

I met Anne and Mark on a Reality Tour delegation to Nicaragua in 2008. The delegation focused on Fair Trade and Alternatives to Neo-Liberalism and everyone on the trip was interested in the issue of Fair Trade just like myself, so I knew I would find common ground with my fellow travelers. Little did I know that I would also make some long lasting friendships with fellow social justice activists. On the delegation we shared an incredible experience of meeting with different human rights activists, indigenous groups, labor unionists and even got to slide down a volcano. However, I think the most eye opening part of the delegation was our stay at La Corona, a Fair Trade coffee cooperative where we met with Fair Trade farmers and were able to see first hand the positive benefits of the Fair Trade system. For Fair Trade advocates, this experience really contextualized our work as activists, and gave us fuel to energize the movement back home. Anne and Mark have since strengthened their work as Fair Trade activists at home in New York, even going on another Reality Tour delegation to Guatemala, connecting with more Fair Trade activists and women’s cooperatives. Anne is currently working at the the Labor-Religion Coalition of NY State where she is the Fair Trade Coordinator where she is working with teachers who are engaging a new generation of activists. She has even made strong connections with Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa campaign being participating organizations in both the Give Fair Trade and Reverse Trick-or-Treating campaigns.

I just love that kids are learning what solidarity means – that we are all connected and that injustice in one part of the world impacts us all. That, of course, is central to my work with labor unions too. Social justice and human rights issues – the dignity of the worker, living wage, working against oppression, the right to organize – are union issues too and Fair Trade embodies all these concerns.

Our delegation at La Corona Cooperative in Nicaragua.

Mark is a photographer and teaches photo, video and digital imaging at Emma Willard, a private independent school for girls. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Mark has produced volumes of novels. Mark has been able to use his photography to share his Fair Trade stories, even having some of his (and Anne’s) photos featured in the 2011 Fair Trade calendar by the Fair Trade Resource Network. See those photos and more at Mark’s photography website. Together, both Anne and Mark have been able to make an impact by engaging the students at Emma Willard to make it the first Fair Trade high school in all of US. A tremendous feat for the Fair Trade Universities movement! And it is these stories from Anne and Mark that I am extending a very warm thank you from me and Global Exchange for being exceptional Reality Tours participants and being a great example of global citizens amongst the Global Exchange community and beyond. They have been able to take their experience on two delegations of meeting the people, learning the facts and then making a real difference. As Anne shares:

I am grateful, so much, for the doors that have been opened to me through my connection with Global Exchange. I continue to be inspired, every day, by the people and places we connected with on our trips. You know about how wonderful our Nicaragua experience was. To be welcomed, deeply, into peoples’ lives and their struggles is humbling beyond words and enriches my life. Our trip to Guatemala has also connected us. We’re now on the board of Mayan Hands, an absolutely wonderful FT organization that works with Mayan weavers in the highlands of Guatemala. We’ve been back (me to learn Spanish!) and folks from Mayan Hands have even come to visit us. It was exciting to bring them to classrooms and to see FT stores here in the US.

I feel very lucky to have met Anne and Mark and am absolutely thrilled to be able to share their stories with you. Thank you! Make your own long lasting connections and go on a Reality Tour delegation. Who are YOU thankful for? Add your own thank you message in the Comments section to recognize someone you think is doing great social justice work. And if you feel so inspired, Retweet and Share this post to help spread the recognition all of our ‘Thankees’ deserve. Thank YOU.

This is Part 4 in an 8-Part “Giving Thanks” series, a Global Exchange exclusive highlighting individuals (chosen by Global Exchange staff members) who are contributing to our social justice work in some way. This series will culminate with a “Giving Thanks” video to be launched right here on Wednesday, November 24th. So please join us in recognizing those special individuals who are helping to make this world a better place.

Today, Global Exchange’s Zarah Patriana thanks two past Reality Tours participants, Anne Kelly and Mark Van Wormer.

On the delegation we shared an incredible experience of meeting with different human rights activists, indigenous groups, labor unionists and even got to slide down a volcano. However, I think the most eye opening part of the delegation was our stay at La Corona, a Fair Trade coffee cooperative where we met with Fair Trade farmers and were able to see first hand the positive benefits of the Fair Trade system. For Fair Trade advocates, this experience really contextualized our work as activists, and gave us fuel to energize the movement back home.

Anne and Mark have since strengthened their work as Fair Trade activists at home in New York, even going on another Reality Tour delegation to Guatemala, connecting with more Fair Trade activists and women’s cooperatives. Anne is currently working at the the Labor-Religion Coalition of NY State where she is the Fair Trade Coordinator and working with teachers who are engaging a new generation of activists. She has even made strong connections with Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa campaign being participating organizations in both the Give Fair Trade and Reverse Trick-or-Treating campaigns.

Our delegation at La Corona Cooperative in Nicaragua.

Together, both Anne and Mark have been able to make an impact by engaging the students at Emma Willard to make it the first Fair Trade high school in all of US. A tremendous feat for the Fair Trade Universities movement!

And it is these stories from Anne and Mark that I am extending a very warm thank you from me and Global Exchange for being exceptional Reality Tours participants and being a great example of global citizens amongst the Global Exchange community and beyond. They have been able to take their experience on two delegations of meeting the people, learning the facts and then making a real difference. As Anne shares:

I feel very lucky to have met Anne and Mark and am absolutely thrilled to be able to share their stories with you. Thank you!

Make your own long lasting connections and go on a Reality Tour delegation.

Who are YOU thankful for? Add your own thank you message in the Comments section to recognize someone you think is doing great social justice work. And if you feel so inspired, Retweet and Share this post to help spread the recognition all of our ‘Thankees’ deserve. Thank YOU.

First place entry. photo by Hope Gardens

After weeks of gathering photos and over 1,500 votes in a week, the top twelve Fair Trade photos have been selected for the 2011 Calendar.

Hope Gardens submitted the first place photo and will have the honor of gracing the cover of the calendar.

Other winning entries include photos of Fair Trade rice farmers in the Philippines, daughters of cacao farmers from the CONACADO cooperative in the Dominican Republic, and weavers in Guatemala.

One entry I am particularly excited about is the one of Nicaraguan School Children taken by Mark Van Wormer. The photo was taken in 2008 during a Global Exchange Reality Tour delegation in Nicaragua that I also happened to be on. The Reality Tour was a life-changing experience, and I am sure it was as well for Mark. He captured many photos from the trip, but this photo is particularly significant because it is a direct example of the positive benefits of the Fair Trade system.

Children of Fair Trade Coffee Farmers. photo: Mark Van Wormer

From Mark:

Children in La Carona, Matagalpa, Nicaragua, get to attend school and have other benefits because their parents belong to the CECOCAFEN cooperative and get better prices for their crops. Since they live on their farms, these children are not exposed to the pesticides and other chemicals that are more typically used on non-Fair Trade crops.

This Reality Tour to Nicaragua is called Fair Trade & Alternatives to Neoliberalism and gave us participants the opportunity to see first hand the positive effects of the Fair Trade system by bringing us into the homes of coffee farmers and seeing the positive transformation in their community with the participation in the Fair Trade system. I highly recommend going on this trip.

Congratulations to Mark and the rest of the winners of the Fair Trade calendar photo contest! Find out more about how to obtain the calendar on the Fair Trade Resource Network website.

Great News! Today’s LA Times travel section featured Reality Tour’s Fair Harvest journey to Nicaragua. On behalf of Reality Tours I’d like to say thank you to their staff and editors for covering our alternative and fair trade focused tours. As you can see in their article ,we are bringing people to understand Nicaragua, its history and people, while creating the opportunity for our partners to share their stories about why fair trade matters. Our Fair Harvesters live with a cooperative member families and work alongside the farmers to harvest coffee, for an alternative “service learning” or voluntourism vacation. The intention behind our Fair Harvest tour is to immerse you into the daily lives of small-scale farming families and enhance your understanding of what Fair Trade means to producers.

In today’s world economy, where profits rule and small-scale producers are left out of the bargaining process, farmers, craft producers, and other workers are often left without resources or hope for their future. Fair Trade helps exploited producers escape from this cycle and gives them a way to maintain their traditional lifestyles with dignity. Fair Trade has helped farmers provide for their families’ basic needs and invest in community development; however, these farmers are still selling most of their crop outside of the Fair Trade system because not enough companies are buying at Fair Trade prices.

Global Exchange has been organizing Fair Trade Campaigns and introducing consumers to Fair Trade products for over twenty years in our Global Exchange stores. Last year, Reality Tours began a close collaborative partnership with TransFair USA. We are honored to partner with them and support the incredible work they are doing around the world. Reality Tours has expanded our Fair Harvest series of trips into fair trade communities in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Israel, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua and Palestine (and can customize them in many other places of course!). Personally, cultivating my relationship with Transfair USA and engaging with their passionate, intelligent staff I have a profound new appreciation for what certification means. I place great value on the “Fair Trade Certified” label on Fair Trade Products and I know that certification ensures that workers are paid fair wages, are free from abusive labor practices, and use environmentally sustainable methods.

Thanks LA Times for reminding the traveler that we have many travel options. You can travel “Fairly” so put your travel dollars where your values are!