The goal was to learn how to make these:
- which are fashioned from snack wrappers and strips of cardboard (cut from USAID vegetable oil shipping boxes, naturally). Not only is this a creative way to transform unsightly used packaging into something useful and pleasing, it gives these kids the tools to start a small business if they choose.They divided into teams, each person cutting, folding, and stitching together the long strips.
After a day or so, they warmed up to each other and passed the time having fun hanging out.
See? It's not a sweatshop!
(Remember the Agent on the far right? That's Silmique, who rocked the mountaintop tree planting day a few weeks ago. He confirmed overachieverness today when he mentioned that he's already started making these bags at home in the evenings. No, he says, his hands aren't sore from all this detailed finger-work.)A few of the finished products:
So this is a dream development project, right? It offers a creative solution to Haiti's ubiquitous trash problem and provides a way for kids to make money and protect the environment.
Win-win...almost. I do think it's a great project, given a few caveats:
1. "All Haitians have is trash, and they make such great things with it!" True, there is a lot of trash here, but there is a danger in thinking that empty plastic wrappers are the only resource this country has. Making these items can be seen as a true act of creativity, since Haitians aren't obligated to work with these materials any more than Americans are.
2. Finding plastic trash is easy, but finding carboard is surprisingly difficult. It can be had, but having it might present too much of a challenge to starting a business.
3. Where is the market for these bags? At $15-20 US each, they're out of the price range of the average Dezam area resident - and as Frantzo pointed out, you can buy a goat for that kind of money, which will reproduce and create a return on your investment.
(If I could step on a tiny soapbox for a minute: price is actually a really interesting question. $20 is next to nothing for a week's worth of work, but all too often tourists and travelers are on the hunt for bargain-basement souvenirs and treasures: "I got this great handmade X for $2!" We in the developed world need to change the way we financially value the labor of others, regardless of where they live.)
4. Reusing does nothing to reduce consumption, of course still the primary way to reduce trash production.
I am encouraged by the fact that these issues are being addressed by AKFP and my Haitian coworkers. This morning they discussed the idea of having multiple price points to allow more working- and middle-class Haitians to afford the bags. They discussed the value in using these bags with pride, showcasing local handiwork. They recognized that this is a stopgap measure while we all work on reducing consumption.
And that discussion, my friends, is something of a development dream come true.
4 comments:
Wow! it made me teary-eyed to see this dream a reality in beautiful Dezam. I loved the "two mouns" account of the day and your deeper reflections are so right on. I have been here in this land where they make, landfill, recycle, and export trash. And here where everything is shiny and organized I wonder why i live in America's garbage can. Okay, let me just wonder why Haiti feels pressure to import it. It's a small and wacky world. EdG
We have folks here making bags and purses like that too! Someone told me about a website on how to make them....but I can't remember. There is an enormous amount of plastic here, it's awful, so woohoo! we can make more bags, and sell them for what they and the maker are worth.
Sharon, I love this post. I have lately been thinking a lot about the relationship capitalism and the Kingdom of God. They certainly are not the same thing, but they are certainly not totally adversarial either (I think). The issue you raise about price is a fantastic one. While reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver during a Frazer Mennonite Church Small Group, we ran across an interesting conversation. Frugality and simple living are wonderful Mennonite values. Does paying more for something because it is organic make you less frugal? I think most of us would say not, but the question of price is still a great issue.
As far as I can see, developing communities trying to get into new businesses have two possibilities. One: figure out a way to make their product cheaper than their competition (make that bag for $1.95). This has been the way that the West has gone about bringing industry to the developing world for a long time now. Interestingly, as the "developing world" develops and labor rates increase, and as transportation costs increase, the US is beginning to be seen as not far from a "low cost country" in the manufacturing world. Two: figure out a way to make the consumer see the higher VALUE that a bag has when it is made by a group of Dezam kids where they get most of the profit and can begin to creep out of poverty compared to a $2 trinket made in a mass factory in China that is only making large corporations more money. This is where 10,000 Villages has done a pretty good job. Most shoppers are willing to pay more there for a product than at Pier 1 for nearly the same product because the product at 10,000 Villages has more value.
When I look at the 10,000 Villages wall hanging over my bed every night, I know that a group of women who would otherwise have no hope of taking care of themselves have hope (made up example). THAT is value. I don't mind that I paid 50% more for it, because I get to enjoy that feeling every time I see it. I think that a tremendous question that we need to be asking is "How do we reshape the purchasing experience so that we attribute value not only on the basis of the product but also on the basis of the producer?”
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