Store aims to reduce world poverty

from The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

One World Goods marks 10 years with a re-opening

Fernando Diaz
Staff writer


(September 16, 2007) — PITTSFORD — For a decade, people have been walking through a door in Pittsford only to find treasures culled from the ends of the earth.

The Mosaic mirrors of recycled glass were wrought in India, as are blank books with leaf-wrapped covers and lush, soft pages. Some necklaces were made by students at the Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya and feature tightly wrapped magazine pages between beads while others are assembled from seeds found in the rain forests of South America.

The pieces inside One World Goods, a fair-trade nonprofit that celebrated its 10th anniversary in Pittsford Plaza with a grand re-opening this weekend, seem like they belong in a museum, as many are also the products of cultures whose techniques are thousands of years old.

The store's mission is to help artisans in developing countries through fair-trade practices by providing a place to sell their products and increase awareness of global poverty and economic injustice.

By cutting out middlemen and sourcing its products from appropriate vendors, the organization ensures it is supporting artisans.

Karin Marlett Choi, a part-time manager and volunteer at the store who helped design recent renovations there, said sales growth bodes well. "I think we'll be here another 10 years," she said.

Among the scores of shoppers milling about the African musical instruments or greeting cards Saturday, Diane Cretella of Rochester was assembling another mystery birthday package for her mother, Lucille, who lives on Long Island.

"She likes things that are unusual," said Cretella while her 8-year-old daughter, Faith, played with an instrument that looked like a typewriter.

"My daughter always finds something she has to have.

"It's the only place where you can find these things," she said. "And they're not ridiculously priced."

Many of the trinkets and crafts can be had for a few dollars.

Like their aged counterparts in museums, the crafts come and go and sometimes never return.

"If you see it and you like it, you better buy it," said Marlett Choi.

FDIAZ@DemocratandChronicle.com