Ethical Earrings of the Month

Do you love elephants?
If so, these earrings are for you! They feature engraved gold-coloured elephant shapes on a black background and have been handmade from brass.
Pretty striking, don’t you think?

They are:

•   Priced at £8.95, so make perfect ethical gift for elephant lovers everywhere!

•   Hand-crafted from brass, but lightweight and comfortable to wear. The back of the earrings are a plain gold colour.

•   The hooks are made from nickel-free base metal and therefore hypoallergenic.

Handmade with great care by skilled Fair Trade artisans at TARA (Trade Alternative Reform Action) Projects in India.

 

A little about TARA (Trade Alternative Reform Action) Projects in India…

TARA Projects was founded in 1973 to help struggling, poorly organised artisans and crafts people in Delhi. By creating markets to sell to, TARA helps to generate steady work and income for them.

TARA’s mission statement is well thought through and quite moving…
“Poverty is not only about shortage of money. It is about rights and relationships. About how people are treated and how they regard themselves. About powerlessness, exclusion and loss of dignity. Yet the lack of an adequate income is at its heart….”

They have now been able to expand their work to a 120 – mile area around Delhi.
Funding has been put in place for informal and vocational schools, as well as literacy centres for adults which campaign and help educate people about Fair Trade in order to end injustice and manipulation in the world mass trade system.

TARA have spear-headed campaigns against bonded labour, child labour, illiteracy, unfair trade practices and for ecological, environmental and female educational issues.

And a little about the Indian jewellery trade…

In India, most jewellery is produced by small artisan groups.
These producers are unable to negotiate a fair price for their work and are often taken advantage of by “middle-men”.
TARA Projects has led the way in protecting and supporting small groups of artisans so they are not exploited or paid poorly.

Making jewellery is a major business in India, but there is a “dark side” to the industry:
the reality is that much of the inexpensive jewellery you can buy on the UK “High Street” is made using child labour.
It is used because wages are much lower than adults’ wages – and small hands are better suited to creating intricate jewellery pieces.
Often jewellery workshops are owned and run by former child labourers who have known nothing else in their lives.

TARA Projects DOES NOT use child labour at any stage in their jewellery-making.
By supporting small artisan groups by empowering them economically and helping them sell their products
for a fair price, they are helping to deliver their core principle that…

“We believed that fairness in trade could bring prosperity and peace in society.”

A really reassuring message of hope, don’t you think?

 

And finally, why not keep things tidy at home?
Have you discovered this tiered wooden earring stand / holder / organiser?
Perfect for hanging up to 40 pairs of hook earrings and keeping some stud earrings in the “dished” base.

You can discover more about TARA Projects in another Blog post titled The “Dark Side” of Jewellery Making and the work of TARA Projects (Trade Alternative Reform Action), Delhi, India.

The FAIR Trade Store is a proud member of BAFTS Fair Trade Network UK (British Association of Fair Trade Shops and Suppliers).

 

“Thank you for reading my blog post.
I hope you love the earrings and appreciate the back story and a little about the people resonsible for making them.

Have you bought these earrings yourself? Or have one of the wooden earring holders mentioned?
I’d love to read your feedback in the Comments section below” – Paul