Building Fair Trade Relationships Trade Wind Statues™ was founded in 2005 based on the premise of making a positive impact in people’s lives. When you purchase one of our statues, 3% of your purchase will go towards supporting grass roots projects that are striving to create and maintain Fair Trade relationships, all the while promoting a world that will be more sustainable in the future. Though there are many well established non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) accepting donations and working hard to effect positive changes throughout the world, we at Trade Wind Statues™ are directly involved with the recipient development and aid projects that we donate to, focusing on creating lifelong relationships and a sense of involvement that is unavailable with many of the larger aid organizations. We feel that it is important to build, support, and actively encourage business relationships that are sustainable and fair on multiple levels. What is Fair Trade? Two of the leading fair trade organizations, the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) and the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT) have defined the principles of Fair Trade as: 1. Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers. This is a strategy focusing on alleviating poverty and the creation of sustainable development. This is in an effort to create opportunities for those producers who have been marginalized or economically disadvantaged in the conventional trading systems. 2. Gender equity. Increasing opportunity for women to earn a fair pay, the right to organize and become empowered. 3. Transparency and accountability. Focus on creating a global trade system which can be monitored, critiqued and accountable. 4. Capacity building. Working towards creating sustained relationships between producers and their trading partners, focusing on continuity, development of management skills, increasing the access to markets, and assisting in financial and technical matters. 5. Payment of a fair price. A fair price is one that should adequately cover the cost of production of the product, but it should also ensure that the production is socially and environmentally sound. This would include fair pay for workers and creating equality in the work place. 6. Working Conditions. Promoting safe and healthy conditions in working environments. 7. Environmental Sustainability. Fair traders work directly in helping to promote the protection of the environment, seeking out and implementing ways that trade can become environmentally sustainable. 8. Promoting fair trade. Educating the public about the principles of fair trade and the possibilities of their implementation. We at Trade Wind Statues™ are working directly with many of the artisans who create our statues, as well as the individuals involved with the packing and shipping of our statues, to ensure that our business relationships promote the Fair Trade principals mentioned above. In an effort to encourage long term economic, social, and environmental sustainability, Trade Wind Statues™ has also recently begun working with the Yayasan IDEP Foundation in Indonesia.