Weaving Lessons in Ghana

By Jacqueline DeCarlo

Education and learning can take many forms. Most of us typically think of classroom instruction, where students are formally taught lessons by a trained teacher. This is the ideal for children and youth around the world, but that's not the only way learning can happen. Apart from the established structures of lesson plans and homework assignments, education can take place wherever people hungry for knowledge and skills gather. Such is the case with the basket weavers of Trade Aid Integrated in Bolgatanga, Ghana.

A fair trade delegation composed of winners in the 2007 Raise Money Right contests, and including CRS Fair Trade partner A Greater Gift, recently spent 10 days in Ghana visiting CRS-supported projects, such as school feeding programs and health clinics. They also saw firsthand the learning taking place among a group of villagers in the small rural community of Bolgatanga, which is famous for the quality of its baskets. In 2000, a handful of weavers established Trade Aid Integrated as a fair trade organization to help local artisans, 70 percent of whom are women, earn a decent wage from their work and strengthen the Bolgatanga community.

Through fair trade, the weavers' association members are paid a fair price for each basket and an additional "social premium" is invested in the community. Trade Aid has channeled some of these extra funds to construct shelters that protect weavers and their supplies from the weather. As it turns out, the shelters also provide an informal classroom so that expert weavers can impart knowledge to neighbors struggling with their skills.

Not Just Baskets

The delegation paid a visit to one such classroom and spoke with Trade Aid members about the benefits of fair trade. As delegation member Elizabeth Cole of Austin, Texas, attempted to thread straw in intricate patterns, several weavers explained that the workshops have become much like local training centers, where members of the association can learn from each other. Master weavers are able to tutor less talented artisans, improving the techniques of the individual and adding to the productivity of the entire group.

The learning doesn't just stop at baskets, either. The weavers say that because they come out of their homes to do the weaving, they know each other better as individuals and have established personal connections to new friends and neighbors. The association members are helping each other attend to individual needs as well as providing group support. The Bolga weavers decided, for example, to establish a collective bank account to help with emergencies like the cost of funerals. "It is the duty of the group [to help others]," one man volunteered.

As the delegation left Bolga, we were assured that a shipment of baskets was on its way to the United States for inclusion in this year's Work of Human Hands catalog. Although none of us, including Elizabeth, managed to learn how to weave in one day, we did get an education on how fair trade increases the common good for the villagers of Bolgatanga, Ghana. It is a lesson the delegation will be sure to share with others in their own communities.

Jacqueline DeCarlo is the CRS fair trade program advisor and former director of the Fair Trade Resource Network.