An Ethical Christmas

Sunday Business Post - Agenda Magazine - Dec 16 2007
Read the story on the SBP website by clicking here.

As concerns mount about how many products are made, Dermot Corrigan sources the best fairtraded gifts.

In the words of one famous Christmas lover, the festive season is a time for giving, a time for getting, a time for forgiving and a time for forgetting.

But many typical Christmas presents, from mobile phones to dolls, to designer clothing, come wrapped in a variety of ethical issues that impact negatively on the lives of many less fortunate people around the world. Ethically-sourced and fairly-traded goods can save Christmas and assuage some lingering guilt, allowing giver and receiver to tuck into their turkey and sprouts, knowing that they have done some good this Christmas.

Oxfam
A goat might seem like a particularly cruel practical joke Christmas present, but if you buy the goat from Oxfam’s ‘‘unwrapped’’ Christmas gift catalogue the animal will be a useful gift for a family in the developing world.

Peter Anderson, head of fundraising for Oxfam Ireland, has recently seen first-hand the positive results of the different ‘‘unwrapped’’ gifts.

‘‘The people of northern Uganda have suffered 20 years of civil war. Everybody we met wanted to get back to their small farm and earn their own living,” Anderson says. ‘‘We can replace lost livestock and provide seeds and tools to replant fields. We saw people who received the vegetable garden gift last year and they are now harvesting. It was fantastic to see the impact.”

Less wacky ideas for gifts in the Oxfam Unwrapped campaign include micro-credit loans, cooking stoves, condoms, bicycles, clean drinking water, schoolbooks and musical instruments for children.

‘In the communities, there is a child-to-child project,” says Anderson.

‘‘Young children use music, drama and dance to teach other children about good hygiene and sanitation.”

It is not only the children in the developing world who benefit from an ‘‘unwrapped’’ gift. ‘‘I have given some unwrapped presents to my nephews and nieces along with something else,” Anderson says. ‘‘It raises their awareness of the disparity between the first world and the developing world.”

Goats are €38 each from www.oxfamirelandunwrapped.com.

Organic goods at Ecoshop
Ecoshop is a fairly traded and organic goods retailer located near the Glen of the Downs site at Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow. It sells a range of eco-friendly and fairly traded cleaning, beauty, baby, clothing and gardening products as well as organic, fine and local foods.

Ecoshop owner Jane Hall says ethically sound products are typically of higher quality than those from mass-producing competitors.

‘‘Our products are made carefully, and the materials and design are far better,” she says. ‘‘The old image of the hairshirt is totally contrary to what we have.”

Hall says Leela-branded wooden toys, such as Bibbo (€19.95), were popular Christmas gift ideas this year. ‘‘Leela toys for younger children are made by a women’s cooperative in India. They are made from sustainable rubber wood and covered in a natural resin, so children can chew them without any harmful effects.”

Other gift ideas include soft toys, alphabet blocks, puzzles, recycled playpens and musical instruments. All of them meet EU and US toy safety standards.

Hall knows wooden toys may not fit all of Santa’s gift requirements this Christmas, so the Ecoshop also stocks a cutting-edge media player.

The wind-up Baylis Eco Media Player has a 2GB memory capable of holding over 500 songs to listen to on the move, and a 1.8-inch colour LCD screen to view photos and films. It also works as a torch, phone charger, voice recorder and FM radio. Designed by legendary British inventor Trevor Baylis, it costs €249.

Visit www.ecoshop.ie.

People Tree
Irish consumers can now buy fairtrade pretty much anything, from coffee in the local store to designer fashions online. People Tree is a fairtrade organisation based in Britain and Japan. It deals with ethically-sound suppliers around the world and offers a range of stylish clothing and jewellery.

‘‘We work with around 70 groups in 18 different countries in the developing world, using fashion as a tool for development,” says company founder Safia Minney.

‘‘Wherever possible, we use labour-intensive, hand-production, for example, hand-weaving, hand-embroidery and hand-knitting. These methods are more environmentally friendly than conventional ones, and also allow us to create more employment.”

Minney says that People Tree’s range of stripey knit accessories (£14 or €19) are popular gifts this Christmas. They are made at the Kumbeshwar Technical School (KTS) in Kathmandu, Nepal, by members of the discriminated against Pode caste.

‘‘KTS provides education, vocational training, and then paid employment to these most underprivileged of people. People use the money they earn to educate their children at the KTS primary school, which is something that they could never have dreamed of previously.”

Minney also recommends a 100 per cent organic cotton poplin tunic, (£48 €66), which is made by Assisi Garments in India. Assisi is run by Franciscan nuns and provides employment for deaf, mute and poor women considered unfit for marriage by their families.

‘‘Assisi provides a haven for these women to live in, and a safe and supportive working environment,” she says. ‘‘They are paid a fair wage and a lump sum after five years of employment to start a home.”

As well as clothing, People Tree offers a range of jewellery, including the Bronze inlay necklace (£18, €25) from the Tara project in Delhi.

‘‘There is a dark side to the jewellery industry,” says Minney.

‘‘The cheap, spangled jewellery that is all over the high street is often made by children forced to work 12-hour days, working, eating and sleeping in the same cramped, poorly-lit and ill-ventilated workshop, because it’s cheaper and children’s small hands are more suited to creating intricate jewellery.”

Visit www.peopletree.co.uk or call 0044-845-4504595.