Trivets and gloves from Nepal, merino wool insoles from Mongolia and baskets from Ghana are just some of the products shoppers can find at a fair trade store now open in the lead-up to Christmas.
Global Village Nanaimo has a store now set up at Woodgrove Centre.
The group's mission is to "support fair trade artisans around the world and help develop a more equitable way of doing business," noted a press release. As part of that mission, twice a year, four to six weeks in the spring and three to four months in the fall, a shop is opened in Nanaimo where customers can purchase fair trade products from around the world. Now the shop is in its 27th year.
"There's still a huge demand for what we do, as far as supporting fair trade artisans and there's a lot of curiosity from our customers, looking for new, different products they can't find in other stores, and a lot of people just really like the idea of knowing that the money they're spending is going somewhere positive. It makes a big difference to our customers too," said Joan Hiemstra, Global Village Nanaimo's executive director.
Some of the countries shipped from include Guatemala, India, Vietnam, Peru, Philippines, Kenya, Thailand, Bangladesh and Palestine.
Hiemstra said that due to the flow of shipping, stock will be coming through every few days resulting in a different assortment of items on the shelves.
"Fair trade is a way of doing business that relies on transparency, co-operation and respect for other people all around the world and it's just a very healthy way for our society to do business."
Setting up at the Woodgrove Centre is a first for the the non-profit, which Hiemstra said was partly due to the street exposure, but also the limited availability of temporary pop-up storefront locations in the city.
For more information about the work of Global Village Nanaimo, visit www.globalvillagenanaimo.com or stop by the store, which will be open until Dec. 24.
