Seven Women Fair Trade Principles - Principle One

Seven Women Fair Trade Principles

Seven Women is a grass roots project which socially and economically empowers women through skills training and employment. The making and selling of products is a big part of what we do and is our main stream of income generation for the women in Nepal.

Fair Trade is becoming a popular concept, but unless explored and seen in practice, it's a hard concept to understand in depth. Seven Women supports and applies the principles of Fair Trade in the grass roots development project we have created.

Beginning with Principle One of the Fair Trade principles, I hope that you will begin to gain a greater understanding of how a phenomenon like Fair Trade is used by Seven Women, and how we have adapted it to fit in with what we do. Our posts about how we incorporate the fair trade into our work empowering women provides an insight into how Fair Trade works or may not work on the ground.

The World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) prescribes 10 Principles that Fair Trade Organisations must follow in their day-to-day work and carries out monitoring to ensure these principles are upheld. For more information on the WFTO and these principles, visit: www.wfto.com

Over the next couple of weeks, we will outline the ways in which Seven Women employs most key Fair-Trade principles through their operations as a not for profit, seeking to empower marginalised and disabled women in Nepal through skills training and employment.

The Fair Trade label therefore, does not suit the organisation of Seven Women through certification, but certainly in the description of its aims and work.

Principle One: Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers

Seven Women engages in poverty reduction initiatives through providing and facilitating skills training and employment.

The organisation supports marginalised and stigmatised women with disabilities and impoverished women in Kathmandu, Nepal. We have been able to economically and socially empower over 450 women to adopt self-sufficiency and ownership.

Principle Two: Transparency and Accountability will feature in our next post.

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^Byron