wfn.org | Exhibit-Hall Seller of Craft Items SERRVs Up Living Wages

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Ga99083 
23-June-1999 
 
                Exhibit-Hall Seller of Craft Items 
         SERRVs Up Living Wages for Third World Artisans 
 
 
FORT WORTH   This is the ninth year that SERRV International has come to 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to sell handmade 
products made by low-income craftsmen and women from more than 30 nations 
around the globe. 
     SERRV brought more than $120,000 in inventory to the Assembly, and the 
non-profit organization expects to sell at least $70,000 worth before it 
packs up and moves its traveling bazaar to its next road-trip venue   the 
General Conference of the Church of the Brethren, to be held June 29-July 4 
in Milwaukee, Wis. 
     "Your General Assembly is probably our single most important event of 
the year," says Sheila Buttner Law, SERRV's public relations coordinator. 
"Right from the start, the Presbyterian Church has been the denomination 
that has been most supportive.  Of the approximately 3,500 churches that 
sponsor sales for us each year, 700 to 800 are Presbyterian.  For some 
reason, Presbyterians have just never stopped being supportive.  They give 
more money to the project than any other denomination." 
     SERRV collects about two-thirds of its revenues in sales sponsored by 
local churches of a variety of denominations.  The remainder is about 
evenly divided among retail (SERRV has two stores of its own and sells 
through a nationwide network of non-profits), mail-order, and sales during 
special events like GA. 
     According to Law, 30 percent to 35 percent of sales revenues actually 
makes its way to the 40,000-plus artisans   three-quarters of them women 
who produce the kites and candlesticks, drums and canes, Christmas 
ornaments and bookends, clerical stoles and table runners, statues and 
carpets, gee-gaws, doo-dads and what-nots that SERRV markets   meaning that 
sales during GA, less expenses, will put more than $20,000 in the pockets 
of the artisans and their families. 
     SERRV claims that every $100 in sales supports a family in the 
developing world for a month. 
     SERRV was founded half a century ago, after World War II, as a mission 
project of the Church of the Brethren (COB).  It bought indigenous 
handcrafts at fair prices from impoverished European refugees and marketed 
them through American churches.  In February, the organization ended its 
long affiliation with COB, sometimes known as "the peace church," an 
Anabaptist denomination with about 150,000 members in the United States 
that is similar in many respects to the better-known Mennonites and 
Quakers. 
     "It was just decided that it was time for us to kind of grow up," Law 
says, adding that four members of SERRV's seven-person board of directors 
are COB members. 
     When SERRV contracts with a group of artisans, it negotiates a fair 
price, pays the artisans 50 percent up-front, and meets the cost of 
shipping the products to the port of Baltimore, near the organization's 
headquarters in New Windsor, Md. 
     Each of the artisan groups is visited by a SERRV representative at 
least once every three years   "and we're in touch with them constantly by 
telephone, fax, mail, whatever," Law says.  
     Finding products to sell is no problem.  "We don't have to look for 
them," Law says. "We're constantly hearing from people who travel overseas 
they used to be missionaries, but now they're often people on academic or 
fact-finding trips.  Every day we get five to 10 calls." 
     One such call recently put SERRV in touch with "Sarajevo Phoenix," a 
group of 16 Yugoslavian women who embroider clerical stoles and "Peace" 
wall hangings that were an immediate hit with SERRV's Product Selection 
Committee and are featured in the organization's latest catalog. 
     SERRV, a member organization of the Fair Trade Federation and the 
International Federation for Alternative Trade, has 25 full-time employees, 
but depends heavily on volunteers like the eight men and women who have 
been minding the store during this Assembly.  "We could not exist without 
volunteers," Law says. 
     SERRV is a Christian organization that believes it is "really putting 
the Gospel to work," she says, but it does no evangelizing   and the 
artisan groups it sponsors don't have to be Christians. 
     "We're known for quality and one-of-a-kind," she says.  "We try to 
keep our prices reasonable   we're not cheap   and we try to see that our 
artisans get a fair price for the wonderful things they make." 
     To learn how your church can sponsor a sale, or to receive the latest 
SERRV catalog, call toll-free: 1-800-723-3712. 
 
John Filiatreau 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by Office of News Services, 
  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
  to the World Faith News list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  For additional information about this news story,
  call 502-569-5493 or send e-mail to PCUSA.News@pcusa.org

  On the web:  http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/

  If you have a question about this mailing list, 
  send queries to wfn@wfn.org