Work of Human Hands craft fair slated for Nov. 20 and 21

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
November 11, 2004

A Work of Human Hands craft fair will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. on Nov. 20 and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 21 in the Blessed Sacrament Parish Center in Sioux City.

Work of Human Hands is a partnership between Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and SERRV International that has brought fairly traded handcrafts from small-scale artisans and farmers overseas to Catholics in the United States. This project started in 1995 as part of their shared mission to promote human dignity and self-sufficiency.

CRS is the official international humanitarian aid and development agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS provides assistance to people in 94 countries and territories on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

"SERRV goes around the world and finds the crafts and gets them to CRS and CRS passes them on to Catholic parishes," said Bernadette Rixner, Blessed Sacrament parishioner and organizer of the event. "It is a fair trade craft program. They make sure that the people are paid at the time they deliver the crafts rather than when they are sold so that the people have the money to do more."

The craft fair has been offered for about five years. She orders items from Work of Human Hands and sells them at the craft fair. According to Rixner, the money is used for community development, schools, water programs, shelters and a wide variety of needs.

"It gives the people a market that they wouldn't otherwise have. They couldn't be large enough to really import things to the United States to get them sold. It gives them a fair price for their work with the result of the community development," said Rixner. "We want people to see the craftsmanship and the variety of materials that people use around the world."

The items to be sold at the craft fair are ordered out of a catalog and sent to the parish having the sale. Items included in the catalog range from coffee and food baskets to candles and baskets to toys and instruments to jewelry and handbags to Christmas ornaments and nativity scenes.

The items in the catalog along with many that will be available at the craft fair were produced my 90 small producer groups in 34 countries around the world, from Bolivia to Bangladesh and many in between.

Items are shipped for free to the parish as long as the order is over $300. There is a 10 percent discount given to the parish at the end of the sale that usually covers the cost of shipping back any items that are not sold, noted Rixner.

The items ordered for the craft fair include musical instruments and toys among many others so that people can see what other cultures use and realize that they have similarities to the United States.

"People really enjoy looking at the things, and they do a nice job of buying, too," said Rixner.

Anyone is invited to attend the craft fair to see what people in other countries have created and to help support the communities the items have come from.

Several other parishes throughout the diocese have also offered the craft fairs that incorporate the Work of Human Hands crafts. Two of the parishes are St. Mary's in Mapleton and Holy Spirit in Carroll, noted Rixner.

People wishing to organize a sale in their parish, school or community should visit www.crsfairtrade.org for ideas on how to get started. Others wanting to purchase items from the Work of Human Hands catalog are able to call (800) 685-7572, fax (888) 294-6376 or go on-line to www.catholicrelief.org/work.