Google is a company that believes deeply in entrepreneurship. And this is a company that believes deeply in the power of information. We don’t think there’s another organization that combines these two things in a more compelling way than Ashoka.
World Fair Trade Day 2008
To commemorate World Fair Trade Day 2008, Ashoka recognizes the role of Ashoka Fellows who are including producers, farmers, and entire communities in a just, sustainable and competitive global marketplace. Ashoka Fellows bring together
people ranging from farmers to fashion executives to
establish fair labor and product standards, creating opportunities for many nontraditional actors to contribute to the Fair Trade movement.
Thes Ashoka Fellows are representative of social entrepreneurs who are creating new trade patterns, labor mechanisms and business models that enable disenfranchised people around the world to fairly participate in the international economy. Ashoka takes this opportunity to raise awareness of their ground-breaking approaches and relentless commitment to creating a more just and prosperous world for all.
Patrick Gathitu, Kenya
ETANG Kenya
Patrick has always been part inventor and part entrepreneur. Today, he helps Kenyans utilize “fair service” technologies to benefit their in their enterprises. He identifies several hundred affordable and appropriate technologies and teaches individuals and organizations to effectively use them, offering continued support to small-scale and Fair Trade business owners as they expand their own ventures. Having begun his work in Western and North Rift Kenya, Patrick hopes to build a network of inventors, farmers, and civil society groups across East Africa to foster efficiency and entrepreneurship in fairly-traded goods and services.
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Victor Ananias, Turkey
Bugday
As a child, Victor’s family grew their own organic foods, ground their wheat with a traditional windmill, and lived self-sustaining lives. This experience helped him recognize that food, health, and the environment are closely related. Today, Victor is cultivating respect for the environment by establishing Bugday, the first all-organic health food store, restaurant, and environmental and cultural center of its kind in Turkey. Bugday provides information about organic and Fair Trade food production to people ranging from village farmers to agricultural policymakers. Victor has established systems for certifying and marketing locally produced organic goods, and is striving to preserve traditional, environmentally low-impact methods for growing food.
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Gabriela Ejea Mendoza, Mexico
Red de Consumidores de Cafe
Gabriela’s parents taught her to recognize social injustice and act to create change. Following that mindset, she is creating a network of committed consumers to improve the living conditions of small-scale coffee producers in Mexico. By linking distribution outlets for coffee in major cities to cultural activities and informational displays about coffee-producing regions, Gabriela engages consumers more directly in network activities, from tourism to financial contributions to direct service projects. Her ultimate objective is to build an experiential bridge between the increasingly disparate realities of urban and rural Mexico, ensuring that small producers benefit from the country's development.
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Tetê (Maria Teresa) Leal, Brazil
Tetê’s pioneering work with seamstresses in a Brazilian slum reveals two realities about business and poverty: first, workshops owned by poor women can compete in the world of haute couture; and second, making quality goods is an effective way for poor women to find open markets and earn a living. Tetê is raising both the standard of the product and the labor standards of the workers associated with her cooperative, Coopa-Roca, which makes high-fashion luxury clothing and sells it to Brazil’s elite. As such, Tetê is defining an industrial standard that will mark merchandise produced with the best practices in community development, environmental protection, and fair labor standards.
Paul Basil, India
Rural Innovations Network
A mechanical engineer with a lifelong interest in community development, Paul sees that people living in rural areas must confront problems daily with few resources or existing solutions. Some brilliant and widely-applicable practical solutions reach scale, but often the solutions designed by rural people are seen merely as local innovations, with limited application beyond a small cluster of communities. Using a venture capital investment model, he reaches these micro-innovators who have little visibility or access to support. With increased exposure, technical assistance, and incentives, these homegrown innovations can replace expensive, ineffective tools and can solve pressing agricultural problems while empowering rural people to grow their innovations using fair practices and dignified standards.
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