World of Good by eBay

Today's post is contributed by Karen Pickett, Director of Education and More. Karen made a comment on the recent post about selling damaged cashmere. Karen mentioned her organization that does something similiar - taking used sweaters, unraveling them, and using the yarn to make crafts. Here is Karen's post:

A passion to help women earn a fair wage and to earn money so they can feed and educate their children is what propels the volunteers working with Education And More.

Education And More, a Christian non-profit organization, has a simple mission – to help the impoverished lift themselves out of poverty and to further the education of the children and young adults in the rural areas of Guatemala.

The people in the rural highlands, mostly of Mayan descent, suffered greatly during the 36 year civil war which ended in 1996 with the signing of the peace accords. Today nearly 70% of the rural indigenous Mayans live in poverty and nearly half of their children suffer malnutrition.

Education and More, a proud member of the Fair Trade Federation, works with artisan groups using international Fair Trade principals, which gives the artisan a fair daily wage for the work done. This not only gives them a fair income but gives them dignity and hope for the future. In addition to earning a fair wage they receive much more through benefits which include interest free micro-credit loans and grants to help grow their business, a student sponsorship program to help educate their children, business training and development and educational opportunities for the women.

The main selling venues for the Fair Trade handcrafts is their listings on World of Good by Ebay and their online web store, although many universities, churches and volunteers host bazaars throughout the United States to help sell the beautiful handcrafts which include: weavings, jewelry, purses, computer sleeves, pet items, napkins & placemats, neck scarves, shawls, baskets and much more. Each and every sale makes a huge impact on the life of the artisan!

World of Good by Ebay is a perfect site to buy gifts that make an impact to artisans around the world.

Visit Karen's site at Education and More.