On 9 January the PPCF Youth group went to the Canadian warehouse of Ten Thousand Villages in New Hamburg to learn a little bit about what Then Thousand Villages is for and to help pack some of the items which will be sent to outlets across Canada.

Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. The people make beautiful, high quality items from jewellery to flower pots to wicker room dividers and much, much more. Single craftspeople and cooperatives earn money to support themselves, their families and quite often to contribute to their community. Here in North America Ten Thousand Villages relies a lot on volunteers to do things like repackaging into single units the lots that have been shipped from the artisans as well as filling out orders as requested by the local stores. This helps to keep costs low to the consumer yet still provide the artisans with a decent return for their work.

We were repackaging flowerpots for shipment to local stores, and in my Pix blog you can see pictures of us at work.

#1 is Stephanie, Kathy (one of the other sponsors) and Jacob. #2 is Elgin (another sponsor), Jacob, Tyler, Steven and our supervisor for the evening. #3 is Steven showing off the mess on him from the styrofoam packing peanuts, and #4 is that mess on the floor.