Christian Retailing

Send The Light partners with Fair Trade organization Print Email
Written by Christine D. Johnson   
Thursday, 25 September 2014 04:25 PM America/New_York

SendTheLight-40-webSend The Light Distribution has partnered with Gifts With a Cause to distribute the Fair Trade organization’s high-quality, on-trend line of handmade gift products. 

Gifts With a Cause works with artisans in more than 20 countries to produce jewelry, scarves, purses, home décor and gift products with stories of hope and long-term positive impact. Gifts With a Cause is committed to the fair treatment of artisans by ensuring that they are paid promptly and fairly for their work, no child labor is used in the production of their goods; the work environment is safe and empowering; and the artisan’s culture is respected—all while utilizing materials and practices that protect the environment.

Send The Light’s Darren Henry said the partnership is just the type of arrangement for which the distributor had been looking for several years.

“We’ve wanted to partner with an organization that had a vision for true Fair Trade products, but also the organizational framework to meet the needs of our retailers,” Henry said. “I’m delighted to be working with Gifts With a Cause because they excel in a business sense and understand retailing combined with such a huge, huge heart for the people they work with around the world. Not one conversation with [owners] Mark and Liz Fangue goes without a mention of the impact our work will have on the lives of their artisans.”

Mark Fangue emphasized the values that contribute to their Fair Trade business.

“As members in good standing with the Fair Trade Federation, the United Nations Global Compact and Green America, we work directly with the artisans to produce fast-selling gift and accessory items so their families have a ‘hand up’ out of poverty,” he said. “We want to create awareness that people in the U.S. can use their purchase power to change lives—educate a child, rescue a child bride, keep women out of the sex trade, and help widowed mothers feed their children—simply by purchasing Gifts With a Cause Fair Trade products. We value the people behind their culturally authentic products and are passionate about treating them fairly and making their products available to you—as this is the only way they can work themselves out of poverty.”

Gifts With a Cause has more than 270 products, most of which will be available at Send The Light in late September.