I learned a lot today—one thing being that I still have a lot to learn!

We were off to the Egyptian Hands Foundation office mid day. Bassem, Anne Marie, Amr and Achmed welcomed us and gave us an overview of the history and current structure of the foundation (formerly Fair Trade Egypt Foundation); Carrie outlined Partners for Just Trade. We discussed the objectives of fair trade and how our various organizations could create a working relationship in order to bring products from Egyptian artisan groups to the U.S. From the perspective of our Joining Hands partnership we are at the beginning of a big learning curve.

The U.S. partners have an understanding of fair trade—we’ve been talking about it for almost ten years, since we entered into our Joining Hands covenant in 2000. But we have done little to educate consumers in our part of Iowa, and that first step is the most important one in the journey.

I’m trying to think about what role our Joining Hands partners in Egypt will see for themselves in this campaign. I hope there will be lively discussions ahead for them, too. They certainly demonstrated a willingness to step out into new territory when they undertook their last advocacy campaign. They have been a powerful and effective voice for progress and I want to believe they have something to offer the fair trade movement here.