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>View discussions about this entry Country: Peru
Organization: FairMail Cards
Sector Focus - Business
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2006
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Project URL: http://www.fairmail.info
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Let the country and people that deliver the beauty printed on photo greeting cards benefit from it, in stead of western companies and photographers, so that economicaly deprived youngsters have an economic alternative to child labour.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Due to their economic situation many impoverished families are forced to send their children out to fullfill garbage recycling activities on the garbage dump of Trujillo, Peru. In the storage houses and on the dump itself they have to process the garbage under dangerous and exhausting circumstances in stead of going to school.
That is where FairMail cards comes in and makes a difference. The pictures on FairMail cards are taken by these underpriveliged teenagers from Peru who where making a living by recycling garbage. Now as FairMail photographers they earn 50% of the companies profit to finance their education and improve their housing. The cards are printed in a Peruvian printshop, exported by FairMail which pays taxes in Peru and sent to the consumers by the Peruvian National Post Company. This we FairMail maximizes the amount of earnings that stay in Peru. Which is much more fair as Peru is the country providing the natural beauty. Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - FairMail Cards are a fairtrade alternative in the commercial greeting card market and has already managed to win market share in the UK and the Netherlands. This way ex-garbage recyclers from Trujillo's garbage dump are developing their creativity and earning money to go to school and improve their families houses. Staff and volunteers of FairMail also provide (i)psychological selfassesment test, (ii)education on teenage pregnancy prevention, (iii)entrepeneurship training, (iv)training in selfconfidence and helps them develop their personal development plans.
This not only makes them more succesfull photographers working on a long-term career, but also more resilient against adults who are trying to lure them into exploitive and dangerous labour activies in the garbage recycling industry. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - FairMail has managed to attract an ethical investor which is financing it's five year, phase two plan of expansion. Besides current production in Peru, in phase two FairMail will also install production units in Varanasi, India (2009) and in South Africa or Morocco (2011) to help more teenagers help themselves by making a creative product. After these experiences the concept will be further upscaled by micro franchising the concept to social entrepeneurs around the world.
Besides the Netherlands, sales units will be established in the UK, Belgium, USA, Canada and Spain before 2012. During promotional activities in these new sales countries FairMail teenagers will be involved in telling FairMail´s story at local high schools to interact with teenagers from the west. Also a FairMail photoexpostion will be used to show pictures of the daily reality of the FairMail teenagers through their own eyes. Both activities are already being implemented right now for FairMail´s promotional campagne in the Netherlands in September 2008, sponsored by EPSON Europe. Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - FairMail is fair-trade certified by the Dutch Association of Worldshops and thus has the licence to sell in 400 Dutch worldshops.
FairMail is first prize winner of the 2006 edition of the Business in Development Challenge. FairMail has a network through ethical investment fund DOB Foundation. In Peru FairMail attracts it's teenagers with the help of two local NGO's: YMCA Peru and Mundo de Ninos Huanchaco. The local government supports FairMail by providing promotional space during fairs. The local government is also opening its eyes to slavery issues thanks fo FairMails attention. FairMail has a partnership deal with EPSON Europe BV as both companies provide photographic solutions. EPSON is financing FairMail´s promotion campaign in western europe in 2008 and 2009. They are also financing that two of FairMail´s photographers can come to Europe to tell the positive story behind their fairtrade greeting cards. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - FairMail provides economic and personal development possibilities for at-risk teenagers, teaching them to be confident, responsible, pro-active, making them resilient against adults trying to lure them into exploitive and dangerous labour activies.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - 90 so far in Peru (direct family members, providers, packers, printers etc.). 270 in 2011 when FairMail is also operating in India and South Africa.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - FairMail measures its success by looking at the personal growth of the participating teenagers, and by how much personal revenue each teen is producing.
Over 1997 the teenagers have generated over 5,000 euros between them in their personal education and health insurance funds. A few of the teens have actually started to enroll in further education and job training courses. Equally important are the goals FairMail has achieved with the personal growth of the teens. The photos they are taking after having participated in FairMail program for a year show signs of great creative development. A third important measure of success was when FairMail got official Fair Trade certification in 2008 from the Dutch Association of World Shops.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - FairMail's teenage photographers used to work as garbage recyclers on Trujillo's garbage dump. Both groups come from poor and broken families and where forced to do dangerous and demanding work in stead of being able to develop themselves. Their ages are between 14 and 18 years old. Through FairMail they are provided the oppertunity to develop their creativity, self esteem, responsibility and entrepeneurship and gain part time working experience to finance their higher education.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - All running costs are financed by the sale of FairMail fair trade greeting cards produced by the teenagers. FairMail has been profitable since the beginning. All investment costs during the first three years are financed by FairMails ethical investor and with the prize money from winning the Business in Development Challenge in 2006.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: 2007: Turnover FairMail Cards €28.187,00 Number of staff: 12 Number of volunteers: 6 Amount of cards sold: 19.673 Money earned by teenagers for education fund: €4.323 euro Money earned by teenagers for packing work: €187 euro Money earned by teenagers for medical insurance: €670 euro Total amount invested in teenagers: €5.180 euro What is the potential demand for your innovation? - During the first full year of operation FairMail sold 19.673 greeting cards, mainly in the Netherland. With expansion planned to the USA, Canada, UK, Belgium and Spain we expect to sell 150.000 fair trade greeting cards from Peru, India and South Africa in 2012.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Things are going great so far. The only barrier would be if we where not able to find enough sale points. But that would also reduce our main costs (printing and transportation) so would no threaten to the innovation.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Founded in 2006 by social entrepreneur Janneke Smeulders, who saw an opportunity to offer local garbage recyclers a chance to put their time and creativity in improving their future. While volunteering she saw many children earning only a few cents a day recycling garbage in stead of going to school. She then came up with a brilliant business idea to get the teenagers to work on their personal development and at the same time generate their own income to finance their education.
In June 2006 she started working with the first group of teenagers. With her own camera she started teaching the teenagers about photography. Her goal was to have the teenagers make creative and quality photographs she could print on greeting cards. 50% of the profits made by the sale would go directly into the personal education fund of the teenager providing the picture. FairMail Goals: 1) Provide underprivileged teenagers the opportunity to earn the money necessary to finance the education for their future. 2) Assist in the creative personal development of the teenagers. 3) To raise consciousness among western consumers that by buying Fair Trade products, they can directly and concretely help a teenager in Peru. Not a teenager that is holding out his hand, but is working on his own future by making a creative and beautiful product. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Janneke Smeulders
16-08-1977 Dutch Work: Education: Contact Information:
Janneke Smeulders
Director FairMail Cards (Fair Trade Organization) Discussions about this entry |
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As the entry stage is over it is no longer possible to update our entry. Through this comment I would like to share the great news that FairMail Peru has reported record earnings for the months of april, may and june of 2008. In total FairMail Peru made a profit of just over 12.000 euros in these three months, meaning the participating teenagers (of which 8 currently are selling their pictures on our fair trade postcards) earned over 6.000 euro to fill their personal eduaction funds. On top of this they managed to earn more then 1.000 euros for the health insurance of themselves and their families. And they earned more then 1.400 euro's as a packaging wage. In total Fairmail sold more then 60.000 cards in three months. At this pace we are hoping to open FairMail production units in India and Africa FAST to spread these significant profits over more teenagers trying to free themselves from forced labour on the garbage dump of Trujillo, Peru.
Please help us to set up new production units by voting for FairMail. The prize money will be used to invest in the set-up of FairMail India in Varanasi in the beginning of 2009.
Chao, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Hi Peter!
I really like what you are doing!
I would like to do some questions and suggestions. I prefer doing that in my own language which is Spanish ...
Me gustaría conocer si hacen algún tipo de trabajo con las familias de los jóvenes.
I know you are a business company and not a charitive NGO, but may be you are interesting in work in this way making some partner with an social organization. Or do sth similar that you are doing with teenagers providing them workshops, education on prevention and family planning, entrepeneurship, selfconfidence...
Por otro lado, mencionan que están trabajando actualmente con 10 jóvenes entre 14 y 18 años. Cómo planean poder llegar y beneficiar a más jóvenes?
Quería también darte las referencias de dos organizaciones de la Argentina:
- el proyecto P.E.T.I.S.O.S. (Prevención y Erradicación de Trabajo Infantil S.O.S.) de la Fundación Gente Nueva. Ellos están trabajando en la ciudad de Bariloche (prov de Rio Negro) en basurales con los chicos y sus familias creando una metodología específica de intervención en trabajo infantil en basurales. La innovación consiste en el fuerte involucramiento de las familias en el proceso de sacar a sus hijos del basural. Buscan fortalecer a los núcleos familiares con formación laboral y capacitación en pautas de crianza y acompañamiento a la escolaridad. lo interesante es su modelo de intervención: entran al basural y conviven con las familias que trabajan ahí, a fin de realizar un diagnóstico y ganarse su confianza para poder luego proponer un trabajo conjunto.
Han presentado también su propuesta en esta competition. La coordinadora es Elena Durón eduronmir@gmail.com
- por otra parte, hay una organización Ph15 que brinda talleres de fotografía a chicos de bajos recursos de villas urbanas de Buenos Aires (y también les da los recursos). Trabajan desde la educación a través del arte y en su utilización como medio de inclusión social. Es muy bueno lo que hacen http://www.ph15.org.ar
Muchas gracias!
Patricia Breuer Moreno
Changemakers Latinoamérica
pbreuer@ashoka.org
Estimada Patricia,
Muchas gracias por tu comentario sobre el plan de FairMail en el concurso. Que gusto de finalmente poder contestar a alguien en castelano!
Bueno dejame contestar tus dos preguntas. Tienes toda la razon que el trabajo con la familia de los participantes es super importante. Sin una casa mas o menos estable con padres que entienden que tienen que mandar a sus hijos a estudiar (y que tienen la posibilidad para hacer esto), FairMail nunca va ser un exito. Felicmente cooperamos con dos ONG's en Peru que hacen este trabajo. ACJ y Mundo de Ninos son dos ONG's locales que trabajan en salud, alfabetizacion y micro-negocios con los padres de los participantes de FairMail. Nosotros estamos muy contento con este cooperacion entre una empresa privada (FairMail) y las dos ONG's porque no solo para FairMail, pero tambien para las ONG's tiene beneficios trabajar en conjunto asi.
Es cierto que ahora FairMail trabaja con 10 adolescentes. Estamos convencidos que con este numero pequeno podemos garantizar mejor la calidad de nuestro trabajo que es mas importante de la cantidad de chicos que podemos ayudar. Pero ahora lluego de nuestras buenas primeras experiencias con FairMail Peru estamos preparandonos para implementar a FairMail en muchos mas paises. Los dos siguentes India y Marueco hacemos nosotros. Luego queremos tener en oferta un programa de "micro-franchises" para que mas personas pueden copiar la idea de FairMail en todo el mundo y aprovechar de nuestro red de puntos de venta, materiales de promocion y metodologia. Si ganamos el primer puesto en el concurso queremos justo destinar los fondos a esta inversion de ampliacion. Porque FairMail si es una idea que merece crecer y tener un impacto mucho mayor. Esto en nuestro gran reto!
Muchas gracias por tus contactos en Argentina. Si las organizaciones quieren cooperar con FairMail sera perfecto si tenemos nuestro programa de "micro-franchises" listo para que les podemos ayudar con las ensenanzas que nosotros hemos obtenido los primeros 2 anos.
Saludos y mucha suerte, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail
Great initiative. I am curious if the kids have an opportunity to grow into the organization. How could the funding of their education be substituted by becoming a part of the business side of Fair Mail? I would be interested to hear ideas of how some kids could initially focus on photography, but then transition into areas of marketing, advertising, etc. Also, are their plans (or currently) to expand the products they create. I understand that the main product is greeting cards/postcards, but what about calendars, t-shirts,etc? Of course, the profit sharing percentage would have to change with products that have less margin- but it could be a way to expand your sales. Another idea would be a partnership with Starbucks. They have an agreement/alliance with several ethical businesses and products (ethos water, putoyama? Cd's). I would not imagine that every Starbucks would offer postcards by Fair Mail, but I could definitely see these cards doing well in Starbucks stores that are in the heart of major tourist destinations (around the world). Again, an inspiring initiative. Thanks.
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Portland State University, Master of International Management, current student
Dear Bradly,
Thanks for your reaction on FairMail's entry. Your questions are interesting and I will be happy to answer them to give a more complete idea of FairMail's philosofy. Unfortunately there is just too much to tell about FairMail to include it all in our entry to the competition.
Regarding the growth of the teenagers into the rest of the organization I can only say there is nothing we would want more. These teenagers are so incredibly responsible, committed and understand the company so well they are more then welcome to grow on in the company. Cinthia is studying tourism and will be starting soon as tourist guide during FairMail's photography excursions. She will do great! Two other participants who are entering their last year as photographers are going to start as photography trainer and management assistant this year to see if it is something they want to do.
There are many other products we can think of with fair trade pictures: flowercards, wrapping paper, agenda's, calenders, e-cards and stock photography. Things we are looking into for the future. But one thing at a time. First we want to be selling in more stores in Western Europe with a product that is ready for mass consumption.
Thanks for the Starbucks idea. There are many different business who would like to show off the CSR with help of FairMail cards in their stores. I am sure we can make good partnerships. It would be great if you could provide us with a direct contact in the Starbucks organization.
Thanks for your feedback. Chao, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Dear Peter
Compliments for the initiative.
Do you have any statistics on the spending behaviour of your members? It has been an observation that youngsters once having gained access to cash tend to thrift it away.
There must have been some indivdual cases of such order. How have they been handled by your team? Do you have some policy/guidelines in respect to this?
Also how has the individual successes from your initiative changed the thinking pattern of the society? What is the response of the peers?
What happens if all the kids want to join as your photographers? (In Varanasi you might have them in huge numbers)
What sort of production can the marketing set-up support at the moment for viable existence?
Look forward to hearing from you
Regards
Puneet
Hola Puneet,
Thanks for your reaction as well.
We have exact statistics on what each teenager is spending its part of FairMail's profit on. As you can read on the FAQ page of the FairMail site
(http://www.fairmail.info/index.php?page=32&title=Frequently_Asked_Questions#10) the teenager can only spend their money on their education and improvements of their house (and when they finish their studies on starting their own business). In order to withdraw money from their private funds they have to first show bills of their last spending of fund withdrawls. This way we are sure the money is spent on the things FairMail is ment for. This is clearly stated in each teenagers participation contract. This way we can also discuss with the teenagers if the spending of their money goes well with the plans for their future we have helped them develop.
Good question about what happes if they all want to join FairMail. We are getting many phone calls lately now that other kids see that they can earn money with FairMail in a fun and safe way. Each FairMail production unit works with a maximum of 10 teenagers at a time to ensure quality over quantity. At this moment FairMail Peru is full and new teenagers will only be able to enter when one of the current teenagers leaves (maximum age for FairMail participation is 19). To upscale the effect of FairMail we want to set up more FairMail units elsewhere and hope that other people will copy our idea in the future. That way more teenagers will be able to be reached. But at all times the expansion of the number of teenagers has to go hand in hand with expansion of sales other wise FairMail won't be able to make a (financial) difference anymore for the participating teenagers as 50% of the profits goes to to them.
Production increase is easy as printers can print whatever quantities we want only driving the production price down due to the scale effect.
Chao, peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Dear Peter
You seem to have made a very balanced beginning. Quality is surely far more important than quantity. I am from India and I have seen here so many quantatitive initiatives which end up distorting more than delivering. Qualitative Initiatives surely are more difficult to come across.
Of course "scaling up" for any venture is a subject of matter of altogether different dimentions. Further with respect to your venture... we possibly can't have a city full of budding photographers. People, specially children are born with a mozaic of talents and linkings. It is on us (society) to think, what kind of platforms we can offer them for actualizing that inherent or acquired potential. Your initiative in this reference is really commendable.
In India, there have been similar success stories in discrete locations. When you come to Varanasi (which I hope you are able to do soon) you shall find a big community of weavers dislodged from there traditional profession, with no access/skill to/for alternate professions. Their children have been facing continious disillusionment in terms of choice of career and future life. These people are craftsmen of the tallest order and did well till their time lasted. However today the question they ask is - what wrong did they do to deserve this?
Maybe they didn't change with the time! May be they didn't upgrade their skills! May be they chose to plead ignorance to the happenings in the neighbourhood! May be they had no influence on the changes happening around!
There are no easy answers to these issues, but projects like yours surely provide for a welcome insight.
What do you feel is the greatest challange you face in scaling up and what direction you feel shall be most suited for you?
Regards
Puneet
Dear Puneet,
Thanks for your reaction again. Nice to meet another "quality over quantity person". With all the emphasis these days on large big scale impact it sometimes makes me insecure about the relevance of FairMail (at this moment). But deep down I know and beleive that it is more important to do something good and something you fully beleive in and can stand by, in stead of being lured in to rapid expansion with possible more negative effects then positive ones. We at FairMail beleive more in organic growth and that is why after two years we are still "only" making a direct difference in the lives of 10 teenagers (and their families). But at least we are sure we are doing things right and can see the direct influence of our (well intended) actions.
But as FairMail is such a powerfull concept we do wan't to try and upscale its effect. On the long run a micro-franchise concept is what we are looking at. But the details won't be figured out untill we have some more concrete experience with "reproducing" the concept in totally different cultural contexts. From those learnings we will be able to design the best concept for the FairMail roll-out. So at this moment I can't give a good answer yet to your question on what the greatest challenge is we face in scaling up. We will learn that along the way and see if we are creative enough to solve the challenges. Up till now we haven't done such a bad job at facing each new challenge on the way, so that gives confidence.
And don't worry, we won't flood Varanasi with Indian teenage photographers :-). 10 is the maximum per FairMail production unit. I promise!
Chao, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
When you say you pay the children 50% of profits, do you mean retail price or final profits? Are you profitable? What does this work out to for the average teen in total and as a percentage of sales price? Do you pay the teens anything upfront as per fair trade standards?
Thanks for letting us know about this interesting program
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John Berger
The Emancipation Network
http://www.madebysurvivors.com/
Hi John,
Thanks for your reaction on FairMail's entry. Always good to hear some questions about the exact meaning of FairMails 50-50 deal with the teenagers. Let me clarify.
When we say 50% of the profits we mean final profits. This is of course far less then the retail price. Of the retail price between 17 and 19% goes as VAT to the government (depends on the country of sale) and 50% goes to the retailer. Even Dutch FairTrade shops keep 50% of their pre-tax earnings!
Of the money actually going to FairMail the biggest part is spent on the transportations costs (about 15%) and on printing the cards (about 10%).
On http://www.fairmail.info/index.php?page=32&title=Frequently_Asked_Questions#18 you can read what this comes down to over the financial year of 2007. As you can see FairMail has already been profitable in its first entire year of opperations earning almost 4500 for education money and a further 404 euros for health insurance and packaging wage for the teenagers. In June of 2008 we have already sold more cards then in all of 2007!
On http://www.fairmail.info/index.php?page=32&title=Frequently_Asked_Questions#9 you can read what this comes down to for the earnings of each teenagers individually. We like transparency as you can see :-)and let the Dutch Association of World Shops check our books.
The teenagers get paid when their cards are sold to teach them to work and think demand driven. In the case of fair trade agricultural products paying up front makes sense to cover the investment costs of farmers (seeds, fertilizers etc). In the case of FairMail the teenager makes no up front investment costs. We borrow them digital cameras and computer use and give them FREE photography training. They are only investing 10 hours a week each on learning a skill, taking photos and watching them on our computers. After about 3 months they start earning from the sale of THEIR photo greeting cards
I hope this makes things clear to you. Good luck, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Hi Peter
Thanks for sharing your project on Changemakers. I was wondering if you could telll us more about the young people involved: what is the basic gender split? I know that lot of programmes have trouble recruiting vulnerable young women to their programmes. What about education costs? What sort of education can the money they earn buy them and what sort of skills do the young people choose to pursue? Finally how realistic is it for the young people to have a career as a photographer - how many of them manage to sell their images outside the project itself, what sort of equipment do they own themselves or have access to?
I look forward to hearing from you!
Heather
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Heather Cameron
Professor
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Hi Heather,
Thanks for your reaction on our entry with FairMail Cards. We are getting a lot of reactions today, so let me start by answering your questions.
As you can see on http://www.fairmail.info/index.php?page=photographers, 40% of FairMail's teenagers are women. Our goal is 50% but that is hard to reach as one of the NGO's we work with only works with boys. The other NGO we work with (ACJ) does work with a lot of women and girls who are active in the recycling industry, so FairMail does not have a problem in reaching young women.
FairMail is looking for a balance between the number of youth involved and the total income generated so that each participant CAN earn enough money to finance the end of their secondary education and finance further education after that. Our most succesfull photographer (david), has already earned so much he can go to a private university and has recently bought himself a computer. More information on the finances you can find on the FAQ page of the about fairmail website. On the photographers page the teenager themselves explain what they want to study. It is NOT at all FairMail's intent to create more professional photographers. So far only David has that serious interest. Most want to study other professions. Photography with FairMail is only a way to raise the necessary money you need to study and to develop your creativity which is necessary in any succesfull life and to get out of the garbage industry.
The children each have their own (borrowed) digital camera at home to take pictures. They can reinvest their earning in better cameras for themselves and computers to photoshop their images which david and cintia have started doing. They are also selling some pictures outside of FairMail which means they earn 100% of the earnings. You can see some of their pictures for example on this website of a hostal in Peru (http://www.hostalnaylamp.com/enter.html).
I hope this answered your questions. Chao, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail
Greetings Peter,
I enjoyed reading about FairMail, and I have a couple of questions for you:
I noticed that you said these youth live in vulnerable situations, to what kind of slavery/forced labor are these youth susceptible? Relating to your organizational structure, what is the other 50% of revenue used for? I see that various training from entrepreneurship to social/life skills are also offered, are there any financial planning or other related training for these youth who go from having little to no income to earning these wages? And, finally, how do you select teens to participate in the FairMail program?
Thank you,
Sarah McRae
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Current Master of International Management Student, Portland State University
Dear Sarah,
Thanks for your comment on FairMail's entry. I am glad to read you like our idea. Let me answer your questions below:
Regarding the vulnerable situations the children working for FairMail live in and the selection criteria to select teenagers which can come and work for FairMail I can say the following: FairMail cooperates with two local NGO's who work with at-risk children. This means that we can benefit from their selection procedure as these NGO's only work with children and their families who live on Trujillo's garbage dump. There they work for "big men" who actually manage to make a lot of money in the garbage recycling industry. Unfortunately hardly any of this money goes to the families who work for them. On average they earn 60 euros a month collecting, separating and processing the recyclable garbage (livable wage according to the Dutch Association of Worldshops is 250 euro) under dangerous circumstances (working amongst the medical waste, broken glass, rusty irons and the agressive competition from other workers). But they have no other option due to debts they have.
The other 50% of FairMail's revenue stays in the company for new investments, replacements and the setting up of new FairMail production units. In the future part of this can go to FairMail shareholders who are currently working as un-paid volunteers.
Regarding financial training for these teenagers, FairMail has a coach in the team who works on making a plan for their future with the children. This way FairMail gives advise on which education to pay for, which investments to make on their homes and what computers or other things they want to buy for in their houses. But in the end it is THEIR money and they are free to decide as long as they show bills proving they spend the money on housing and education. THAT is what FairMail is for while they are still teenagers (all participants leave FairMail on the age of 19).
Thanks, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Dear Peter,
Do you have partnerships with tourist shops in Peru in which you can sell your fairmail? Besides the photo training are there any other services offered for the kids? Are you in any way working with the local government?
I'm really excited by your work. I would suggest that you work to establish a more clear link to the ending modern day slavery topic.
Thanks!
Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
Dear Dana,
Thanks for your comments on FairMail's entry to the ending of modern day slavery competition. I really like the setup of this open source competition where all the feed back helps to improve the ideas. Let me react on your questions below.
Besides the phototraining there are indeed a number of other services offered to the children which are a least as important as the money they make with the sale of their greeting cards. The staff and volunteers of FairMail regularly provide (i)creativity stimulating workshops, (ii)psychological selfassesment test, (iii)education on teenage pregnancy prevention and family planning, (iv)entrepeneurship, (v)training in raising their own selfconfidence and helps them develop their personal development plans.
The great thing about FairMail is that this not only makes them more succesfull photographers who can work on a long term career, but also gives them a better chance on being succesfull in real life! Learning to be confident, responsible, pro-active, creative and having the oppertunity to sustain themselves in their harsh neighbourhoods makes them much more resilient against adults who are trying to lure them into exploitive and dangerous labour activities to earn a few penny's to stay alive. When their family's have no money they no longer have to fall in the hand of these child labour exploiters because they have an economical alternative. Also they can mentally stand up for themselves and see that they are going to be exploited with what is being offered to them.
With regards to the local Peruvian market FairMail is currently selling about 10% of its cards to Peruvian tourist shops, restaurants, hotels and travel agencies. This percentage will grow this year as we are getting our first orders in the market for corporate christmas and invitation cards. We are accesing this market through the local chamber of commerce.
The local government supports FairMail by providing promotional space during fairs. The local government is also opening its eyes to slavery issues thanks fo FairMails attention.
Thanks and greetings from Peru, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director
Hi Peter
Your idea is not only wonderful but replicable across borders. Here in India, the problem of children engaged in hazardous and low paying occupations is immense, in spite of many laws prohibiting and regulating child labor. Acute poverty across India forces children into such occupations, even though they have enough talent to enter into meaningful work situations. My colleagues and I have recently launched a rural tourism project (a small village resort) in Shantiniketan where we have engaged the entire rural community to provide us all the material and labor we require. We are also in the process of providing meaningful openings to the children in terms of self employment, and one of the things we have in mind is to sell their wares in the urban up-scale markes.
I do not yet know how, but we would be happy to provide basic cameras to some local children in Shantiniketan and send you the results (pictures they click). Selling the cards made by your organization would also be a great pleasure as Shantiniketan is a small educational town set up by the Nobel winner Rabindranath Tagore (literature, 1913) with huge international exposure. Another Nobel winner Dr Amartya Sen (economics, 1998) also belongs to Shantiniketan. The daily average of tourists visiting this town is about 3500.
We shall be delighted to assist in any other way we can. Regards
Sunil
Hola Sunil,
Greetings from Peru and thanks for your contribution, enthousiasm and ideas. Congratulatios on your rural tourism project!
Your idea of local teenagers making pictures for FairMail in return for 50% of the profit is definately interesting and coresponds with our future idea of micro-franchising the FairMail concept around the globe. Perhaps your project could be a pilot project for this new formula.
In March of 2009 we are going to Varanasi to set up the second production facility of FairMail in India. We already have a good contact there. But I would love to visit your site on that oppertunity and discuss the oppertunities of working together. Where can I find it in India as I found several Shantiniketan's on google earth?
Good luck and lets stay in touch! Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Hi Peter
Thanks for your interest in what I suggested. I will be delighted to meet you during your visit to India in March 2009. Shantiniketan is in the Eastern part of India, roughly 180 km north from the city of Calcutta, which is also the nearest airport. Varanasi to Calcutta would be an hour's flight and a drive from Calcutta to Shantiniketan takes about 3 hours.
For more on Shantiniketan, please see:
www.india-tourism.com/EN/shantiniketan.html
www.wb.nic.in/westbg/shanti.html
www.shunya.net/Pictures/NorthIndia/Shantiniketan/Shantiniketan.htm
Regarding our rural tourism project, we have been funded Indian Rupees 6.5 million (Euro 98500 approximately) as soft loan and Indian Rupees 1 million (Euro 15150 approximately) in equity by the Tourism Finance Corporation of India, while our newly founded non-profit organization is self funded as of now. I will send you more details via email.
Thank you once again
Sunil
Hola Sunil,
Thanks for the extra data on your project. I have it ready for when I visit India in the beginning of 2009 to start our new FairMail production unit in Varanasi. At least a month before I go I will contact you to discuss the details of our meeting up. I hope that then the apparent win-win possibilities for both our projects will become more concrete. If you wish I will keep you informed with our FairMail newsletter 4 times a year in the mean time.
Good luck and see you soon, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Hi Peter
Thanks for your reply. I will appreciate if I get your newsletter. Will be looking forward to seeing you.
Regards
Sunil
Hello,
I think this is an excellent idea that not only gives children a chance to be children, but also gives them the exposure and opportunity to create a future free of forced labor for themselves and their future families. Photography is something that speaks to everyone and breaks down language barriers, and the photos that I saw that have been done really are a powerful communication tool.
I also commend the project's proposal to plan for future scaling-up to expand to other countries. I also think it is important to engage youth in developed countries in projects like these, which could be an extremely cost-effective way to scale-up the project in terms of marketing. I worked with a human trafficking project that included a primary component of outreach and advocacy within the US to spread awareness on human trafficking and child labor among high school and college students. I see great potential in this project to include an outreach component.
Just some ideas to consider:
1) Identifying partner schools or youth organizations (such as the Boys & Girls Club, of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts) and match children as pen pals
2) Sign an MOU with partner organizations in which the children in the developing country have an opportunity to further raise awareness on human trafficking and child labor in their own communities via fundraisers, advocacy campaigns, etc. designed collectively by the children
3) Looking futher towards the future and scaling-up, organizing learning and advocacy exchanges via photography excursions between disadvantaged youth in developed and developing countries around which futher fundraising and advocacy campaigns can be raised
This I think could greatly help open another avenue for marketing and widening the exposure and markets for the beautiful photography while also increasing the power of the awareness element of the project.
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Gender Equality and Human Trafficking Specialist
Dear Jessica,
Thanks for your valuable reaction to FairMail´s entry. Your suggestions on including an outreach component is a good one we hadn´t given much thought yet. As FairMail is a business model and not a charitive NGO, our first priority is to sell more cards so the teenagers earn more money through a safe, fair and creative profession. With the money coming into their personal education funt they can be more free to creatively develop their own future development. Which will be very different from the current labour realities of them and their families.
But you are right that FairMail has a story to tell and should take that oppertunity aswell. Not so much to raise funds (we rather earn our own money doing business instead of holding out our hand), but to raise awareness and link teenagers from all over the world. During our promotional campaign in the Netherlands in September two peruvian teenagers are coming aswell to tell their story at different high schools. They area also going to give photography workshops to the Dutch high school students who are organizing a photo competition.
All over the country we will also be showing our photography exposition at fairs, festivals and shopping streets to tell the story FairMail and show the teenagers´view on their daily reality. With the (press) attention we get with that we hope more people will buy the card that makes a difference.
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
Dear Alyssa,
Thanks for your comments on our entry. It looks like you got a clear picture of our idea and managed to give a good summary of its core points in a few lines. Your two questions give me the oppertunity to improve our entry and to make clear how FairMail is planning to increase its impact the coming years both by helping more teenagers help themselves and by helping more consumers find our cards that make a difference.
We are planning to extend our organizations´s model to Varanasi, India in 2009 and to South Africa or Marocco in 2011. After those experiences we will be micro-franchising the FairMail concept to interested social entrepeneurs around the world. This will create the necessary snowball effect we are aiming for. The possible prizemoney from this competition will be destined exactly to this upscalling of the concept which is already working greatly in Peru.
Strategic partnerships is a second vital point for FairMails growth. Involving more teenagers without increasing sales would mean less education money for each participating teenager. Something we don´t want of course! At this moment we have a partnership with the Dutch association of fairtrade shops which gives us the possibility to sell in 400 Dutch worldshops. The same would have to be acheived in the 5 new sales countries we are aiming for untill 2012 (UK, Belgium, USA, Canada and Spain). Just last month we closed a partnership deal with EPSON Europe BV who is sponsoring FairMails promotion campaigns the coming year. (Both companies offer photographic solutions). They are also sponsoring the trip of two of FairMails teenagers to the Netherlands in September to tell the positive story behind their fair trade greeting cards..............I think that also happened in the end of the Born into Brothels movie you mentioned :-)
I will emphasize both points in our entry soon. Thanks for your feedback!
Greetings from sunny Peru, Peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
By providing at-risk Peruvian teenagers an opportunity to develop useful skills and earn money, FairMail clearly heads off the vulnerability of a susceptible population. The fair trade model is a good one, especially since the price point is made clear to potential card buyers. FairMail's incorporation of environmental sustainability throughout its operation down to FSC-certified paper is impressive.
Would it be possible to replicate the organization's model in other countries with vulnerable teenage populations? The idea seems like it could take root in other places. (I'm reminded of the documentary "Born Into Brothels" about a woman's effort to give children of prostitutes in India a chance to become photographers and her subsequent cultural struggles.) In addition, are there strategic partnerships that could be developed to increase the FairMail's market?
Thanks for your comments Andrew. Any suggestions on improvement or on where to find a market for FairMail Cards?
Thanks, peter
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Peter den Hond
Director FairMail Cards
www.fairmail.info
peter@fairmail.info
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Andrew Aris
Lecturer University of Erfurt
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