Marcia Ratliff/Winonan
For a group of global studies students at Winona State University, holiday shopping is another way to change the world.
Students in Linda D’Amico’s Introduction to Latin America class are hosting the Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale on campus this week.
Ten Thousand Villages, which has been coming to campus for 10 years, is a nonprofit that collects fair trade handicrafts from around the world for sale in the United States, D’Amico said.
D’Amico requires a civic engagement component in all of her classes. The fair trade sale is a way for students to become aware of global economic issues.
“How you spend your money makes a political difference,” D’Amico said. “That’s what the students aim to learn and teach.”
Sophomore Myranda Johnson, a student in D’Amico’s class, is in charge of recruiting volunteers to run the sale. She said Ten Thousand Villages makes fair wages a reality for its artisans.
“Ten Thousand Villages has representatives around the globe that buy from artisans so they can plan for future endeavors, such as sending their children to school or expanding their business,” Johnson said.
Johnson said many of the artisans are in Latin America, so the project ties well with the class.
For D’Amico, the Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale is an extension of her life’s work as a cultural anthropologist.
She goes to Ecuador three or four times a year and is involved with 10 different women’s and environmental groups there.
She has seen firsthand the benefits organizations like Ten Thousand Villages bring to communities.
“These women don’t need saving. They’re saving themselves,” D’Amico said. A woman who is economically independent can improve the well-being of her family and community. Birth rates and child mortality rates are lower when women have fair wages.
In addition, Ten Thousand Villages fits in with the local traditions of its artisans. “These crafts don’t disrupt their culture,” D’Amico said.
Bringing Ten Thousand Villages to campus involves a lot of planning. But D’Amico said it’s worth it.
“When we open the boxes, it’s like being in a museum of creative spirit from people around the world,” she said.
Beyond the benefit to the artisans, the fair trade sale teaches valuable lessons in Winona, D’Amico said. “It builds a sense of community within the class. We’re empowered to see how our actions make a difference.”
For Johnson, coordinating schedules among volunteers has been a learning experience in itself. “This has been a great learning process, figuring out how to make a cohesive schedule and contacting all of the volunteers with information about the sale,” she said.
This is part of being a citizen, D’Amico said. Citizens have rights, but they also have responsibilities.
“It’s not that there aren’t enough resources. As citizens we need to be aware of this,” she said.
D’Amico said here in the United States, people often forget to think about where their products come from. “Everybody likes cheap prices,” she said, “but there are external costs to cheap prices.”
It’s a challenge to think of the whole picture, she said, but the holiday season is an excellent time to do just that.
“Economic justice is something that rings true to most people’s hearts,” D’Amico said. “Everybody deserves a dignified life.”
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