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bjbjqPqP AN INTERVIEW WITH MITCH TEBERG (Feel free to change it to make it more interesting)
Hi Mr. Mitch Teberg. I will start with very basic questions because it does seem that
Fair Trade is very new idea in Vietnam, or at least to me. So, what is Fair Trade? (in
a very short and simple way?) Fair Trade is a global movement, a movement about awareness
of Trade Justice and making Trade fair for all people throughout the world and free from
exploitation. Locally in Vietnam, it is about ethical business and make sure that there
is no exploitation, respecting labour and human rights. In your blog, you talk about
a Fair Trade Journey. Can you tell everyone again about the purpose of the Journey? Why
you started with this idea? The journey for Fair Trade actually started out in 2005. I
was the volunteer, the liaison for Fair Trade Organisation in the US. When I was looking
for the cooperation that I created with and followed up to interview people, to make sure
the Fair Trade actual fair. So I did that for a year. I was also searching for new cooperatives
and that brought me to Vietnam. The last journey for Fair Trade started last year in December.
Well, I had done a review and they all focus on ..the Western concept on the Fair Trade.
There were some key studies and nothing really about the voices of the producers. Here is
the chance for me to do research on the voices of the producers. So I started out doing that.
From here I went down to Hoi An in Vietnam to work with Reaching Out. It was outstanding,
wonderful people. Then I went to Cambodia. Cambodia was a different story, it wasn t
a success story. But that was interesting. Then I went to the Philippines, where I refocused
on the voices of the producers and in the process, I understand the importance of networks
and the support of these groups, the NGOs, the communities, the advocates . So the scale
of my how to start the strong network That from there we went to Indonesia. In here we
went into the opposite issue. Here everything is quiet, not much going on, it wasn t the
program. So it is more than research from the voices of America .to understanding of
th Fair Trade. How many countries have you passed and how many Fair Trade stories have
you collected? We started in Vietnam and we went to Cambodia, from Cambodia we went to
Philippines and then Indonesia. From Indonesia we went to Aceh, from there we started Fair
Trade movement in Indonesia, one in the city and one in the Aceh. Then I went to Malaysia
So I facilitated that process and I got a lot of people involved. What is the most impressive
story in Vietnam that you can tell? If you come to Vietnam to see the Fair Trade, I highly
recommend you come to Hoi An because there you have Reaching Out. Reach Out is an organization
started by Binh Le. He is disabled himself but you never know that from his personal.
He is a very strong man, quite incredible. He has taken ..work, he focuses on empowering,
giving disabled people in Hoi An an opportunity to learn craft and the trade and really become
craftsman and craft woman. They do not see themselves as being handicapped and they integrate
really well into the community. So I think that is really good story if we look into
how really Fair Trade empowers local community. How do you compare the Fair Trade in your
country (America) and some others with the situation in Vietnam? Fair Trade is interesting
because it works every where. The primary focus of Fair Trade is to create opportunity
for the disadvantaged people in the society. Every society has this type of people: they
can be disabled, minority groups, survivors of human trafficking, women from domestic
violence. So in the US there are disadvantaged groups also that work with Fair Trade. There
are some groups working with native Americans. For them, a lot of cultures have been lost.
What Fair Trade does is to provide them to share and develop the culture, become mainstreamed
through Fair Trade. You are working with HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, Vietnam in a fixed
term contract. Could you please tell me more about this job? (What is the topic of the
training, how many trainings will you conduct and what is the overall objective of the training?)
Well, it is an interesting story. HELVETAS had an approach to the producers that they
want to reflect on it, what we are doing and how we are doing Fair Trade. They open it
up and take a look at them to see how and make sure that we are doing Fair Trade to
develop the community. And so we have been working with them to create a format, a platform
for discussion, to identify the understandings because Fair Trade is not just about Trade,
it is about so many other issues such as social justice, you can There are other issues such
as child labor, this type of things. So basically, my work creating the contract between HELVETAS
with producers and looking at Fair Trade standards and integrating the two, create the right
space approach that empowers producers in their contracts with HELVETAS. Then we had
the first workshop, introduce producers to the Fair Trade, and at the end of the training
session, we divide them into groups and we reviewed sections of the contract and get
their feedbacks. Base on their feedbacks, we need to shortlist it, simplify it, in their
language and had to be very straightforward. There are some more work to do so we went
back, condense the report into 4 pages and really focus on clarifying exactly what expected
the most from the buyers and from the producers. So that was the first part. The second part
was taking the expecting. Here is your standard, here s your contract, let s do the baseline
study: Where are the producers in the contract so we should have an idea where they are to
have a clear understanding one with producers profile, one with manager s interview and
then we have two discussions groups: one with man group and one with woman group. How to
make people realize more about the value of Fair Trade? And what actions should be made?
If you are talking about the Vietnamese public, there s no awareness of Fair Trade in Vietnam.
In European countries, you have large organizations: Oxfam, Travelers. They have huge media campaigns
so if you talk to one European person, they understand about Fair Trade, they understand
the basic concepts and principals. Until now, I think Fair Trade has been unfairly focusing
on the North so what I am focusing on my blog and I do provide articles and other writings
to other Fair Trade groups. I have been promoting the vision for Future Fair Trade which is
about localizing Fair Trade in the South. They have incredible network, they had layers
of collaboration, they had advocates, university movement, they had organizations even Catholic
Church involvement. So many different layers (Note: This interview will be published online
in English and Vietnamese of HELVETAS Vietnam website with direct link to Mitch s blog)
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