A recipe that changes lives…
Fair Trade Downunder began as a desire to make a difference to the poor in our world – one at a time. The story of the boy who throws back the stranded starfish had an impact on my life when I heard it for the first time about 20 years ago. I realised that one person could make a difference to some of the world’s forgotten people – one by one.
The Starfish Story
There was once a young boy who liked to walk along the beach. One morning when he got there, the tide-line was a mass of stranded starfish – thousands of them. He began to pick them up one at a time and throw them back into the water. An older and seemingly wiser person came along and said ‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ To which the boy replied, ‘I’m throwing them back so they don’t die.’ The older person said, ‘But just look, there’s thousands of them, you can’t possibly make a difference.’ The young boy, picking up another starfish, said, ‘Well mister, I’m sure making a difference to this one!’ as he cast it back into the water.
Loren Eiseley
With encouragement from my family and friends Fair Trade Downunder took its first steps and ran a Hands & Hearts afternoon – a Fair Trade shopping experience – in the home of a friend.
And from the very first day, we had the joy of knowing we were changing lives – one at a time.
We now bring handcrafted gift items from countries including Mongolia, Thailand, Nepal, China, Uganda, Cambodia, Laos and India. And every Hands & Hearts event has within it the power to reshape the world for a handful of families crushed by the despair of poverty.
