by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
The director of an Indian fair-trade organization described women's lives in the slums of Mumbai at the Fair-Trade Gala on Saturday.
"Women (in Indian slums) don't have opportunities," Pushpika Freitas said. "They are uneducated, and they do not have any marketable skills. They are brought up to bear children and to be a mother. They're not supposed to think or be someone."
Freitas is the president of MarketPlace, a fair-trade organization in Mumbai, India.
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She said MarketPlace empowers Indian women by training them to make clothing and home dÇcor items, which are sold in the United States through a catalog and fair-trade stores.
The gala, organized by the UNM Fair-Trade Initiative, featured a fashion show with MarketPlace clothing, slide shows, films and a vegetarian Indian dinner made with fair-trade coffee, chocolate and produce.
It was held at the Amy Biehl Charter School at 123 Fourth St. S.W. About 75 people attended.
Nicole Willburn, co-chairwoman of the initiative, said fair trade ensures producers earn an adequate salary for the goods they make, based on the cost of living where each producer lives.
"Fair trade is an international certification that guarantees producers a living wage," she said. "It's comparable to our minimum wage."
Freitas said her organization works with about 450 families, mostly from impoverished neighborhoods around Mumbai.
"We started in a slum just north of Mumbai called Santa Cruz," she said. "The slum houses about 80,000 people. The homes are pretty much 10 by 10 feet, and there is no indoor plumbing for the water supply, and there is only water available for about three hours."
MarketPlace helps women respond to the problems in their communities, she said.
"The idea came from groups of women during discussions about how they could become agents of change in their communities, not only their families," she said. "Each group now chooses a problem in their community and tries to find a solution to problems like garbage collection in the slums and alcoholism, which is a pretty big problem in India."
Freitas lives in Chicago, where she manages marketing and sales for the products MarketPlace distributes.
She said the hard work and determination of the women in the slums of Mumbai keep her going.
"What amazes me all the time is the strength, the intelligence and the tenacity of the women we work with," she said. "That has been the encouragement I need when I'm up late trying to figure out markets for their products. The women have been my inspiration."
Rebekah McCann, co-chairwoman of the UNM Fair-Trade Initiative, said the event demonstrated the struggles and hopes of people from another country.
"Experiencing India through an event like this, with presentations, slide shows and movies, shows people that there is another world outside of the United States," she said. "It shows that there are people that are suffering, and that they are striving to make a difference in their own communities."
