Fair Trade Clothing and Batiks

     In nations around the world many women are producing clothing and other goods in unsafe conditions for poor wages. In contrast, TEDI is working with women in Tanzania who are producing clothing, tablecloths, napkins and other "soft furnishings". These women are working in safe conditions and earning a fair wage. Several women's groups in Dar es Salaam (The Batik Centre, Marvelous Batiks and Haba Na Haba), batik and sew these products. Most of these women are the sole supporters of their families, often as a result of the AIDS epidemic.
     TEDI's Dar chapter is working with these groups to find U.S. markets for their goods, as well as seeking business for a factory, Ubungo, purchased by Ms. Frida Mahalu from the Tanzanian government. If sizeable U.S. markets are developed, this factory would have the capacity to employ more than 600 workers.
     Consumers in the United States are learning the importance and implications of purchasing fair trade products, such as "Mt. Meru Coffee". TEDI is working to develop "fair trade clothing" markets in the United States. By purchasing fair trade products, consumers support the fair treatment of workers in other parts of the world.
     TEDI board member, Beth Peterson, is leading the effort to brand, design and market the items manufactured in Tanzania. Beth is a marketing and small business consultant from Elgin, Illinois. She is working in partnership with Grace Msindai Ndunguru, who heads the Haba Na Haba women's group. Haba na Haba means "little by little", as in the Swahili saying, "Haba na haba hujaza kibaba." "Little by little the measure is filled." Beth and Grace intend to train teenaged women to dye, cut and sew garments and are working with an American clothing designer, Amy Rigg, who will use Tanzanian batik and traditional elements to design items that appeal to American women. These items will then be imported to the U.S. and sold in shops and over the internet.
     At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Tom Eggert's business class is currently researching cost-effective shipping methods from Dar es Salaam to the United States. Their report will impact all TEDI projects involving the shipping of goods from Tanzania to the United States.