Monday, November 5, 2007

C-O-N-N-E-C-T, find out what it means to me...er...us!

As many of you know, Eric and I are both big fans of fair trade. When we came to Africa, we began to discover a HUGE array of beautiful Ugandan/Kenyan/everythingAfrican crafts, and were hoping to somehow link folks up with fair trade programs in the U.S. We had no idea, at that time, that the owners of that fair trade program would be us (us in the U.S., selling U.S. (Ugandan Stuff), that is).

That's right...we've decided to pursue opening a non-profit fair trade store in none other than New Orleans! You also may know that we've been through about a hundred different plans at this point, but we're thinking (and hoping, funds-pending) that this one's the real deal! We're in touch with lots of artisans (those are easy to find in these parts), an email account, lots of contacts, and a potential sponsor in Millennium Villages. It's coming along!

The name of it is/will be Connect. Connect with the artisan(s), connect with the owners/workers, connect with Africa, connect the struggles in Africa to those in New Orleans, connect with local (N.O./NY/my sister) artists...in a disconnected world, let's connect. You get the picture.

The birth of this idea was on October 5th (perhaps over pizza & beer in Kampala ;)), and it has been growing ever since (you should see it crawl; and it's starting college in December (that's a bit ahead of Harper, right Julia?!)).

Anyway, we're both really excited about this & wanted to share in that with you. We'll keep you "posted!"

Update: an article was recently published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on the emergence of local fair trade stores. Sounds like a great time to join in on the fun!

3 comments:

Janet said...

AMEN....for all our blessings!
sending a hug...:)

daniloandjaclyn said...

re you serious?! I would love to get involved. I am applying for grad school at Tulane....
l-donelle

Anonymous said...

i THINK IT SOUNDS SO COOL. i PLAN TO BE A VERY LOYAL CUSTOMER. i WOULD LIKE TO MAKE SOME JEWLERY IF i COULD. KEEP THOSE COOL THOUGHTS FLOWING. IA AM PROUD OF YOU GUYS!!
LOVE YA,
MEL