Perth Voice Interactive

ANTONIA TAYLOR is the WA State Manager for Oxfam Shop (Hay Street, Perth and Queen Street Fremantle) and Co-Convenor for Fair Trade Freo. In this SPEAKER’S CORNER Antonia explains how you can help make a world of difference this Christmas

IT is staggering to think that Australians will spend $46.7 billion this Christmas, according to annual spending figures released by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and Roy Morgan Research.

It blows my mind to think of the impact this money could have in the hands of some of the world’s poorest communities.

The really exciting thing about my work with Oxfam and as a Fair Trade campaigner is that we are actually in a position to witness how a small amount of money can have a very real impact on producers — none more so than in the wake of a disaster.

It has been more than six months now since we woke up to scenes of utter destruction in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated great swaths of Nepal.

Many workshops and small-scale factories that supply Fair Trade shops around the world were impacted by the earthquake, placing the livelihoods of artisans in peril.

As soon as the Oxfam emergency appeal opened, the communities of Fremantle and Perth opened their hearts (and wallets) in an incredible show of solidarity with the people of Nepal.

Australians from all walks of life poured into our two WA Oxfam Shops, handing over small and large change — some gave their week’s pension — and children donated their pocket money. Through these impromptu donations, the shops raised almost $30,000 for Oxfam’s Nepal appeal.

Just four weeks after the earthquake, Oxfam Shop general manager Julia Sumner and I attended the World Fair Trade Organisation bi-annual conference in Milan. The Nepal earthquake was high on the agenda for this gathering of global Fair Trade pioneers and leaders.

We were all moved to tears to hear from the nine members of Fair Trade Nepal Group who, despite the utter chaos unfolding in their country, had made the journey to Italy to attend the conference and tell the stories of their workers, and the efforts they were taking to distribute emergency aid to their communities.

One of these producers is Sana Hastakala, which works to promote traditional craft skills with predominantly underprivileged artisans, in particular women.

Pramila Shrestha, a hearing-impaired artisan who works with Sana Hastakala, was among those affected by the earthquake. When it shook Nepal on April 25, Pramila was thankfully in a safe place in a park in Kathmandu, attending a Deaf Association picnic, but her home was critically damaged.

Communicating through sign language, Pramila explains that when she couldn’t reach her husband through their usual method of video calls, she feared the worst.

“Immediately after the earthquake the reception towers were out, so I was trying to make video calls, but I couldn’t get through. I was very scared,” she said.

Rallied

Oxfam and others at the WFTO conference rallied behind our colleagues in Nepal who were representing hundreds of individual producers that make our beautiful hand-crafted products. We committed to help these resilient people to re-build their workshops and houses and grow their businesses so trade can, once again, bring hope to this country.

The re-building in Nepal will continue for many years but we are thrilled and astonished that just six months after the earthquake, products from Nepal have made it back on our shelves, just in time for Christmas.

Every product we buy has been touched by someone, somewhere with a name and a story but all too often their voices go unheard.

The difference with the Fair Trade supply chain is we take the time to really hear and react to the stories of our producers, because they are at the heart of everything that we do.

As consumers this Christmas, we have the power to choose where a small amount of that $46.7 billion goes and — if we listen to the human voice behind our products — we really can make the world of difference.