Gift Faire Offers Help to World’s Poor

In July, my wife and I were strolling along Pasadena’s
fashionable South Lake Avenue when we spotted a small store with an
unusual name:
”
Ten Thousand Villages.
”
 Inside we discovered an amazing assortment of unique,
hand-crafted items made by some of the most economically challenged
people in the world.
In July, my wife and I were strolling along Pasadena’s fashionable South Lake Avenue when we spotted a small store with an unusual name: “Ten Thousand Villages.” Inside we discovered an amazing assortment of unique, hand-crafted items made by some of the most economically challenged people in the world.

But readers of this column won’t need to travel to Pasadena to purchase this precious merchandise.  For the 18th consecutive year, the Bay Area Mennonite churches are sponsoring The International Gift Faire, an opportunity for local residents to make an impact on world poverty while learning more about folk arts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.  It will be held from 9am-8pm Oct. 12 and from 10am-4pm Oct. 14 at Lincoln Glen  Church Fellowship Hall, 2700 Booksin Ave. in San Jose.  Admission is free.

This event features hundreds of unusual gifts and home decor items in bamboo, wood, natural fibers and ceramics – things like baskets, ornaments, musical instruments, toys, rugs and brassware from 30 developing countries such as Bangladesh, El Salvador, Thailand and the Philippines.

These handicrafts are imported by Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit marketing and job creation program established in 1946 by the Mennonite Central Committee.  Its mission is to create economic opportunities that help people in developing countries earn a decent and fair living, enabling them to afford improved health care, nutrition, housing and education.

All proceeds from the Gift Faire are donated to Ten Thousand Villages, and that allows the purchase of more crafts from an increasing number of poor people.  It is the oldest and largest fair trade organization in the country, with 60 years of experience and an annual trade volume in excess of $20 million. 

The organization was started 18 years ago by two local Mennonite women who felt the need to help disadvantaged women in Third World countries find a market for their handicrafts. It has grown to be  one of the largest such fairs in the United States, with more than 150 volunteers. 

The Mennonites trace their origin to Anabaptism, a Reformation movement begun in Switzerland in the 16th century.  The Anabaptists were persecuted by both Roman Catholics and other Protestants because of their distinctive beliefs. Only adults could be baptized; they refused to take oaths of allegiance to governments, accepted only the Bible as authority and refused to serve in the military.

Among the religious groups today that are descended from the Anabaptists are the Huttites, Amish and Mennonites (the largest group, named for a Dutch Catholic priest Menno Simons who converted to the Anabaptist faith and helped lead it to prominence).  Today there are about a half-million members of these groups in the United States and about 1 million worldwide.

A notable part of their faith relates to serving others.  This is especially apparent in the functioning of the Mennonite Disaster Service.  Mennonites have always helped each other – the famous barn-raising scene in the Harrison Ford movie “Witness” (although featuring Amish) is a good example, symbolizing “the love of Christ and the advantages of mutual community helpfulness.”

But in the in 1950s, the Mennonites began to further organize and expand this mutual aid beyond their own membership.  As a people of peace opposed to military participation, the Mennonites find disaster relief  another opportunity to serve the nation as a whole.  Each year more than 3,000 volunteers participate in post-disaster cleanup and repairs, at no charge to victims. Many served in the Gulf Coast region, aiding victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.