The shelves and racks of Ten Thousand Villages, a gift shop on Main Street in Evanston, brim with batik, wood, and woven straw, giving the place that developing-country look. It resembles a Pier 1 Imports, the giant purveyor of imported furnishings and gifts, but the merchandise is more offbeat.
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More than the stock, however, what distinguishes Ten Thousand Villages is its philosophy, which is to enrich its artisan-suppliers through nonexploitative business practices. “We’re into economic justice,” says Donoghue, who helped found the nonprofit store. “The best way to make peace in the world is to ensure that everyone has enough.” For devotees of native tchotchkes who are also altruists, Ten Thousand Villages is a two-in-one mecca.
Donoghue and comanager Penny Lukens also fill their shop with items from other fair-trade wholesalers. SERRV (Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation Vocation), a Maryland-based outgrowth of the Church of the Brethren, is another pipeline for overseas artisans. Mixes of beans, chili, and salsa come from the Women’s Bean Project, an operation in Denver that teaches job skills to women in poverty. The Enterprising Kitchen, a similarly geared nonprofit in Uptown, provides couscous and tabbouleh. MarketPlace, an Evanston company, imports cotton garments made by a dozen women’s cooperatives in India.
Lukens, Donoghue, and an assistant manager earn salaries, but for most labor Ten Thousand Villages relies on a corps of 45 volunteers who contribute at least four hours each month. Some haul the trash and others are sales clerks, making sure to drum home the fair-trade credo. They also point visitors in the direction of the coffee corner, where small cups contain organic brew from Equal Exchange, a fair-trade importer in Boston that guarantees its South American co-ops a minimum price of $1.26 a pound for their beans.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Susanne Donoghue, Penny Lukens; misc photos by Nathan Mandell.
