Global Gallery update

Three weeks in, and I cannot believe I am about to graduate. This is turning out to be an awesome last quarter: I am only taking two (very interesting) classes, I’m winding down at work and have hired my replacement, the OSU Cycling Team is doing great, and racing is going well for me.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Ben and I are now working with Global Gallery. I am an official intern this quarter. Our project is starting to take a concrete form, so I thought I’d post our plan. This is exciting, as it means we’re finally starting to nail down a timeline for the trip, as well as starting to contact the organizations we’ll be working with.

We are going to create multimedia presentation with GG and the SA NGOs. The working plan is to develop a CD-rom and print materials that outline GG’s mission, how they operate, who the people are, etc. to take down to South America and distribute amongst the NGOs GG currently works with. The idea is to communicate with the NGOs and their artisans so that they will be able to create better products for export and to strengthen their relationship with GG.

The main three NGOs will be working with are MCCH in Ecuador, Manos Amigas in Peru, and Artisan Loreto in Bolivia. After sharing the information we have collected on GG and Fair Trade with these NGOs, we hope to gather their side of the FT story to bring back to the States. We will be incorporating the information we find into the original CD-rom, so that the finished product will be not only an explanation of GG, but also a tool to share the culture of the artisans and the impact of FT.

MCCH is a large, highly developed NGO based in Quito, Ecuador. They work as a financing institution and clearing house of sorts, working with people all over the country in all sorts of export markets such as cocoa, coffee, and handicrafts. GG imports from their handicraft artisans and these will be the people we hope to work directly with. It will also be a great experience to learn how an established NGO functions, what management techniques work, etc.

Manos Amigas is a smaller NGO based in Lima, Peru. They work with artisans from towns around Lima. They sell to 10,000 Villages, a large US FT organization. GG is in the process of setting up the infrastructure to buy directly from them though and thereby cutting out The Middleman, that dastardly foe of fair trade. They are not as organized as MCCH, but are still a solid organization.

Artisan Loreto is based in La Paz, Bolivia and is the smallest and newest of the three organizations. It is run by a Bolivian family, of which the parents themselves grew up in an artisan community. One of their sons is in the US, and it is through him that GG first came into contact with the group. While they are a relatively new organization, they have already done some great work linking artisans in different villages together. They are working on building an orphanage complex in La Paz.

We are hoping to work with at least these three organizations while in South America.