We are members of the Fair Trade Federation. For 20 years we have used Fair Trade principles in all our dealings and have worked with many of the same artisans for over a decade, supporting them and their extended families while working together to bring these African baskets to the American market. One of the greatest parts of importing from Africa is seeing the positive impact we have on the many artisans and their families.
Our current projects include building a community weaving center that will serve 4 villages and over 400 weavers, providing basic school supplies for all the weavers' children in one village, and paying to register the weavers and their families to enable them to receive free health care for a whole year.
Steve Karowe, founder of The Overseas Connection, travels to Africa to meet with the producers regularly to ensure that they are satisfied and that everything is being made to the highest quality standards. When we negotiate prices we always start by asking what the artisans want to charge for a particular item. If their price is workable, we always accept it. When their price is too high for us to bring the item to market in America, we explain the situation and let the artists know that we do not want to pressure them to agree to a lower price. We explain what price we can pay for an item and we see if the artist can produce it for that price and still make a profit on the work. We always do our best to make sure the artisans are happy with the final price. In addition, we regularly pay much of the money in advance of receiving the goods in order to assist the artisans while they are working on our orders.
Thanks to all of you who help support the weavers by buying a basket from our site.