IHM School To Hold Sale Of Handcrafted Items

Published: November 25, 2004

ATLANTA—The eighth-grade class of Immaculate Heart of Mary School is sponsoring a “Work of Human Hands” gift sale on Sunday, Dec. 5, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school. All are invited to peruse and purchase handcrafted gift items from around the world.

Work of Human Hands is a partnership between Catholic Relief Services and SERRV International, which promotes economic justice for low-income artisans overseas and advances an alternative approach to international trade through the sale of fairly traded handcrafts.

Under the conventional trading system, low-income artisans in less developed countries work long hours to produce goods for consumers in wealthy nations but often earn less than a dollar per day. The larger profits go to the brokers, importers and retailers who rely on a system that pays low wages to producers and charges high prices to consumers.

Work of Human Hands is part of a fair trade movement that offers a clear and just alternative to the conventional system. Fair trade, based on direct relationships with low-income producers overseas, eliminates the intermediaries who exploit low-income producers and drive up the prices of the goods. The program guarantees artisans a fair price for their products, access to credit and training and the stability of long-term relationships rooted in the principles of mutual respect and economic justice. Programs such as this provide an opportunity to make meaningful connections with the people overseas who produce the goods consumed in the United States. With the Work of Human Hands sales and the fair trade program, everyone wins—purchasers receive beautiful handcrafts and the people who produced them get hope for a better future for themselves and their families.

For more information on the Work of Human Hands sale, contact Carmen Graciaa, religion coordinator at IHM School, at (404) 636-4488 or cgraciaa@ihmschool.org. IHM School is located at 2855 Briarcliff Road, NE, Atlanta.