FairMail - Fair trade photography by underprivileged teenagers
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Peter
den Hond
Yes.
The Netherlands
I am a visionary social entrepreneur with experience in setting up and running 7 social enterprises in Peru, India, the Netherlands and preparing one in Morocco. It is my passion to run a business with underprivileged teenagers and develop their creativity. I want to show the world that deprived but motivated teenagers can break the chain of poverty in a business manner by taking creative pictures of the beauty around them and selling it worldwide. My vision for 2017 is to have FairMail production units in five countries and sell their pictures in 20 countries, employing over 100 teenagers.
FairMail Cards
, NH, Amsterdam
, LD, Trujillo
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FairMail's three main activities are:
1) Train underprivileged teenagers in developing countries in photography and creativity.
2) Sell and license their best pictures worldwide on cards, calendars, bookmarks and other licensed products.
3) Pay the teenagers a fair trade income (50 % of the profit and health insurance) and guide them to invest their money in education and housing.
A specific example is the 19 year old Mariaflor Reyes from Trujillo, Peru. Before entering FairMail she worked on Trujillo's garbage dump with her mother to collect materials that could be sold for recycling. At the age of 15 she entered FairMail and received free photography training and a digital camera to use. Her pictures where printed on the over 1 million cards sold so far in Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. On the back of each of her card her customers can see her face, name, age and email and read the message that Mariaflor is funding her education with the sale of her cards. In just over 4 years she has earned almost 7.000 Euro with the sale of her pictures. With this money she is now financing her career of 5 years at a local private university and paid to finish the construction of her mothers house. Mariaflor still lives next to the garbage belt, but is now a shining example for her surroundings that with hard work and creativity it is possible to break the chain of poverty.
Operating for more than 5 years
In the period between 2007-2011 33 at-risk teenagers have generated more then 225.000 euro in local income with the sale of their >1.000.000 cards to finance their own education and the operation of the social enterprises they work for. Only two of them have dropped out of school despite their harsh realities and several are currently studying at universities.
In the period 2012-2017 FairMail aims to provide images from 5 countries taken by >100 teenagers, marketed on different media concepts that:
1) Empower >100 teenagers by developing their creativity and self esteem while earning an income with their pictures.
2) Uses local beauty as a resource to generate a total of >1.1 million Euro in local income.
3) Inspires customers in 20 countries to contribute to poverty reduction.
FairMail has been profitable since year one as with no profit the teenagers would earn nothing and return to their exploitative labour. FairMail's income and profit is increasing due to an increasing amount of licensing agreements with international publishers in such a rate that we can employ more teenagers and increase FairMail's impact. Due to our successful track-record we are being approached by publishers who are in the top 5 of their national markets who want to licence and distribute FairMail products. Due to their experience and sales force >100% growth is foreseen over the next 5 years.
FairMail cooperates with local NGO's working with at-risk teenagers in Peru, India and Morocco who help preselect the most needy but also motivated and school-going teenagers. FairMail's membership of the WFTO is an important partnership due to the increasing importance and market share of fair trade products.
An environmental component fits very well with an ethical product like FairMail and a combination we believe in. Our main stream publishers and printers recognize this and let FairMail inspire them to incorporate new environmentally production techniques we have experimented with ourselves like using bio-degradable inks, bio-degradable cello bags, FSC paper and recycled envelopes.
I think social entrepreneurship is the future after traditional development aid which is being criticized more and more and loosing public support both in the donor and developing countries.
Businesses have proven to be able to contribute to solving social problems in developing countries where traditional NGO's have not always met the expectations. This is because social enterprises work demand driven, focused on long term operation and financial sustainability to finance future operations. Whereas NGO's run the risk of working donor driven, for a short period where sustainability can be jeopardized when project funding runs out.
The challenge will be to scale up the good ideas that are going around to provide real impact. And to keep the positive aspects of "pure" social entrepreneurship alive when social enterprises scale up to become bigger entities.
The only challenge I can imagine is keeping up with FairMail work and e-mails while entering remote parts of Uganda and working hard and enthusiastically on the team assignments. The experience of staying with a local family during the part of the stay will be very interesting I am sure and a great way to connect!
The most rewarding I think is meeting like-minded social entrepreneurs, learning from their experiences and sharing my own. I also look forward to getting first hand experiences on how FLO certification works in practice and the benefits it provides for the involved farmers. Possible constraints of fairtrade certifications and improvements that can be made to ensure sustainability of the system great topics to discuss in this international team!
And to get inspired to start FairMail Uganda in the future in cooperation with the people I meet. So we can provide fair trade pictures of Ben&Jerry's vanilla producers in the future!