Community Corner

Mayan Artisan to Visit Galloway, Discuss Fair Trade

Guatemalan Native Gloria Chonay will visit Smithville as part of the Mayan Hands Fair Trade group.

Despite its setback in getting the town designated as a “Fair Trade Town” last fall, the Go Green Task Force for Sustainability will be part of a continuing effort to spread awareness about the issue when a Fair Trade artisan from Guatemala visits Galloway Township.

Gloria Chonay will visit Herban Legend in Historic Smithville and the Village Greene on Saturday, April 20, from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. as part of a two-week tour to spread awareness on the issue. She will visit as a representative of Mayan Hands, a Fair Trade organization working with 150 women in Guatemala, Fair Trade Towns USA and Fair Trade Colleges and Universities, according to Go Green Galloway representatives.

Chonay is a Mayan artisan and leader of a basket makers cooperative in a rural community in Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango, located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Chonay lives in extreme poverty, according to Go Green Galloway, putting her in prime position to received help from the Fair Trade movement.

Her father was killed in Guatemala’s Civil War when she was five years old. She and her brothers had to work to feed their family, but were forced to drop out of school after sixth grade.

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Fair Trade focuses on a fair wage for laborers, direct trade between groups and eliminating the middleman, and promoting safe and healthy conditions for workers in developing countries through a grassroots movement. Companies that create Fair Trade products don’t take advantage of child labor.

According to Fair Trade Towns USA, Fair Trade Towns “seek to empower communities to organize a local grassroots movement” and “bring together schools, places of worship, retailers and community organizations in their towns and cities and provides special recognition for their efforts.”

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The Fair Trade Town designation provides a “permanent platform for continued outreach and education to build a Fair Trade movement locally and deepen each community’s commitment to international justice.”

Chonay joined Mayan Hands, and was able to earn a scholarship and finish high school, according to her biography provided by Go Green Galloway.

Mayan Hands has helped many Mayan women living in Guatemala, who are mostly illiterate and monolingual, earn their way into schools. Chonay has learned the arts of weaving, embroidery and basketry.

Go Green Galloway brought the proposition for Galloway to be recognized as a Fair Trade town before council in September, and it was defeated by a vote of 4-2. Deputy Mayor Tony Coppola and Councilman Jim Gorman voted in favor of designating Galloway as a Fair Trade Town, and Councilwoman Whitney Ullman wasn’t present at the meeting. Councilman Jim McElwee had not yet been elected to council.

Now, Chonay will make Galloway one of her destinations during her visit to the United States in April.

Other stops on her tour will include , Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Murfeesboro, Tennessee.

Mayan Hands Assistant Director Vera Hernandez will serve as Chopay’s translator on the tour.

“The part of my job that I love most is when the women tell me about their lives and I can see how their quality of life has improved, how they’re trying to make their children’s lives better,” Hernandez said. “With the support of Mayan Hands, they are able to receive a fair price for their work so they can sustain their families and educate their children. Smiles, eyes and hearts tell me that Mayan Hands women´s lives are changing.”


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