Introduction

Mum and me wearing dresses made by women in a Tanzanian cooperative. MICHAEL PARDY

Do you ever wonder who makes your T-shirts? Or where the melons in your fruit salad are grown? Or how soccer balls get those little stitches in them?

I was always curious about where things came from, but I never thought too much about it until I was in my early twenties and I visited my parents, who were living in Tanzania. My mother and I visited a cooperative (a small group of people who all own a business together) where artisans made beautiful wooden toys and hand-sewn clothes. The artisans explained that they used to sell their goods on street corners until they joined the cooperative, but since then they’d had a steady income and were able to sell their goods to people around the world. Speaking to those craftspeople made me realize that when we buy things, we are connecting ourselves to a whole web of people across the globe. The idea was exciting, and when I came home to Canada, I joined a group called the Gaia Project, which works with people just like those workers in Tanzania.

A group of Rwandan artisan women work on a cloth decorated with embroidered patterns. SARINE ARSLANIAN/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

This Zambian girl is collecting palms to make woven baskets for a fair trade project. VIDEA

Through the Gaia Project, I learned more about how trade works and the effect it has on people’s lives. I learned about sweat shops and child labor and environmental problems. It turns out that a lot of people work hard to make sure that the folks who grow and make the things we buy get a fair deal. Read on to find out about all these amazing people.