How about hiking to a bright blue glacier lake at the foot of the 6768 meter high Nevado Huascaran, the second highest mountain of South America? Or bathing under the 771 meter high Gocta waterfall, the third highest waterfall in the world?
These are just two of the activities during FairMail’s 4 new photography trips to Peru. Besides visiting beautiful off the beaten track destinations, the FairMail photography trips are unique because you get to travel together with FairMail’s teenage photographers! Together you share the joy of taking pictures. By travelling with the teenagers you don’t feel like a tourist at all and you can make deeper contact with the locals. For the teenagers it is an opportunity to hear directly from potential customers what kind of pictures people in the west like.
Below you can find an overview of the 4 upcoming trips that we have planned, starting at 650 euro for 11 days, all included.
Below you can view the episode with English subtitles.
Would you like the teenagers to make pictures for your employer’s Christmas cards? And at the same time have the chance to win a photography trip in Peru for you and a friend? Then click here and see how you can win.
Unfortunately FairMail founders Peter and Janneke had to take the very difficult decision to close FairMail India.
What happened?
Due to an old family feud between two families of different FairMail teenagers, an unprecedented amount of mutual anger and envy was unleashed in the hearts of these families when two teenagers had a serious complaint about one of our team members. The combination of wrong behaviour of the team member, accusations without proof and strong reactions to these accusations led to an actual police intervention.
Dangerous situation
We were shocked by the speed of the developments and how late we were informed by the other team members. When the police case started false rumours were spread about FairMail’s activities and the tension between the team members rose quickly. It has resulted in an unworkable and even dangerous situation for the team members and volunteer photography trainers of FairMail India and for us personally. This is evident due to the fact that the team member is currently in prison for over 10 weeks on accusations that are not properly investigated. We are doing the best we can to help him get a fair trial.
A great loss
The above forced us to the decision to stop all operations of FairMail in India as of the first of October 2014. This means that no new photos will be provided by the Indian teenagers. This is a great loss. Luckily we were able to come up with a solution in order to keep selling their cards and allowing the teenagers to keep investing in their education through the sale of their photographs. FairMail has signed a cooperation agreement with Asha Deep, a local school providing education to underprivileged children in Varanasi. Over the past years FairMail has cooperated with Asha Deep to recruit new FairMail teenagers and cooperate with them in guiding the teenagers. Currently 9 of the 10 FairMail teenagers are studying or have studied at Asha Deep school.
The least-worst solution
As of October 2014 Asha Deep will be responsible for providing the teenagers with their part of the FairMail earnings to invest in their education and providing the guidance in how they spend it. They will also collect the bills to justify these expenses so FairMail can keep guaranteeing that the teenagers’ money is spent on their education. Our former manager can keep his work and salary to support his family as he will help Asha Deep in the administration of the teenager’s funds. As he will also keep FairMail updated about the progress of the ex-FairMail teenagers we can keep you updated on how they are doing and investing their money.
What does this mean for the teenagers?
Despite the horrible past weeks we hope to be able to focus again on the goal we had in mind when FairMail started in India: give these teenagers the opportunity to follow their dreams and study what they really want. The numbers prove that most of the teenagers are on their way in achieving that. Since the beginning of FairMail India in 2009, 16 teenagers have earned over 45.000 euro to invest in their education. 56% of the teenagers are still in secondary school, 19% finished and kept on studying after that. Of the 4 teenagers who didn’t finish high school 2 teenagers used their FairMail earnings to start their own business. Of the 9 current FairMail teenagers (the other 7 already retired), 6 are preparing for their advanced education. Our estimate is that they will have enough funds to finish their higher education through their current savings, in combination with future earnings from their old photos which will still be sold. The 3 newer FairMail students might not earn enough money with their photos to finance a whole career as they do not have that many cards yet. But Asha Deep has offered to try to fulfil their educational needs through donations from their regular donors.
All in all a very sad chapter in the history of FairMail. We will of course evaluate on the lessons learnt and incorporate these in our strategy on how and where we can increase FairMail’s impact in the future.
With the summer running to an end, FairMail is getting ready for the busy Christmas period. In total we are launching 14 new Christmas cards this year and 4 boxed value sets. In total there are nearly 100 Christmas cards to choose from in our online webshop in all sizes, shapes and languages.
Only for the readers of our newsletter we are offering a 10% early bird discount on all Christmas cards. Just fill in the discount code Earlyxmas2014 at the end of the on-line order process. The discount is only valid until the 1st of October 2014 so be quick!
Click here to go to the complete Christmas card collection in FairMail’s webshop.
Below you can view a video showing the path of a FairMail Christmas card all the way from a picture taken by Indian photographer Aradhana until her card making it to a European customer.
Or enjoy a few more of the new Christmas card designs below:
FairMail Peru photographer Sebastian showing his Ben & Jerry Christmas card
Besides our new Christmas card collection, FairMail also offers beautiful and inspiring tailor made Christmas cards for companies and organizations. Perhaps this year also to your employer, your own company or someone else you know who would love to inspire others with a fair trade Christmas card this year? To get in contact with the right people we need your help! As sign of our gratitude we are giving away two free (!) photography trips in Peru to one of the people who helps FairMail get a corporate Christmas card order.
In this video FairMail founder Peter explains you how you can win a free photography trip for 2 in Peru?
Here is what can you win:
– Two 11 day photography trip’s for you and a person of your choice in Peru worth 1.300 euro’s in total. (airplane tickets NOT included!)
– You can choose which trip and when from the list of available trips on the FairMail website.
– You travel with a group of FairMail’s teenage photographers to an off the beaten track photography destination, sharing the joy of travelling and taking pictures together.
What do you have to do:
– All you have to do is send us (i) the name, (ii) e-mail and (iii) telephone number of the person at your employer who is in charge of the Christmas cards, Christmas gift packages or photography purchase so we can approach him or her with our offer for FairMail Christmas cards.
– An optional extra to help us out would be to print or e-mail this digital flyer stating FairMail’s offer for pre-printed or tailor made Christmas cards or e-cards. This way they can already have an idea of what we have to offer and you can help introduce it.
How are you helping FairMail:
All the pictures we are offering are taken by underprivileged teenagers in Peru and India. FairMail trains them in photography skills. They receive 50% of the profit FairMail makes to invest in their own education and housing. So by bringing us in contact with the person in charge of purchasing Christmas (e-) cards or photography you are introducing us to a potential client we would otherwise never come in contact with. If it turns into a sale for FairMail you are helping us find a market for our teenagers photographers and that way contributing to a better future for them.
So THANKS!
How do we choose the winner:
From all the people who sent us the required information (see “what you have to do” section above) we will randomly pick ONE winner from the tips that lead to a concrete FairMail Christmas (e-)card order.
The winner will receive notice by the 15th of December 2014 and be published in the first newsletter of 2015.
Employees of FairMail and business partners of FairMail are excluded from the competition.
What’s included:
– English speaking guide (founder of FairMail).
– All overnight stays in a shared room in hostels or with local families during the 11 day trip.
– All meals, except the first day in Trujillo, Peru.
– Transport during basic 11 day program.
– Entrance fees during basic 11 day program.
– Bus station or Airport pickup in Trujillo, Peru.
– Lunch meeting with the FairMail teenagers before departure
– Preparation Package
What isn’t included:
– Airplane tickets or other transport to the starting point of the trip (Trujillo, Peru)
– Any (taxi) transport besides the basic program
– Food en drinks besides the 3 daily meals.
– Photography equipment
– Optional tours around Trujillo, Peru
In August 5 Peruvian FairMail teenagers travelled with 5 foreign photography amateurs high into the Peruvian cloud forest. Besides taking pictures for the new FairMail cards, their goal was to learn more about the route an organic coffee bean takes from the field to the cup.
To do so we started in the tiny rural village of Sicches near the border with Ecuador. This little town, situated on the humid side of the Andes, is inhabited by farmers who are members of a fair trade coffee coop.
By staying with these farmers for a couple of days the teenagers learned not only about the coffee chain but also about how their fellow countrymen and -women live in a very different environment than the teenagers themselves are used to. After a few days of coffee harvesting, photo shooting and sugar cane cutting, the trip continued to the coffee processing plant. There the teenagers learned about the final stages of production before the coffee is exported to Europe.
If you fancy travelling with the teenagers on one of their next trips click here or come to the next information session on the 8th of November 2014 in Rosmalen, The Netherlands. To register or for more information about the information session please click here.
We are thrilled to announce that the FairMail team in Peru has 2 new members: Bryan (14) and Dante (13). Together with 2 other girls they started their one month trial period in June.
These 4 teenagers were put forward by our local partners Mundo de Niños, Milagro School and LitClub Cerrito de la Virgen. The idea of the trial period is to give the candidates the opportunity during one month to find out if they are really interested to learn about photography. Plus to show us their motivation for school, responsibility in handling our cameras, their punctuality, honesty and good companionship.
After a couple of weeks one of the two girls came to the conclusion it would be difficult to combine her school work, current activities for the LitClub and Milagro school with her new activities for FairMail. This was unfortunate for FairMail as we did see quite some photography talent in her. But at the same time we respected her responsible and realistic decision.
New FairMail teenager Bryan
After the first month Bryan and Dante impressed us most with their responsibility and motivation. Both also fitted in very nicely with the other current teenagers so we decided to give them the opportunity to become a permanent member of FairMail Peru. Yeah! You can read more about Bryan and Dante on their personal profile pages. We wish them a lot of luck with their new part-time career as photographers and hope to present their first FairMail cards to you very soon!
The fourth candidate didn’t manage to convince us during the first month so we decided to give her a second and last chance. She told us she really liked photography and wanted to be part of FairMail so we gave her one more month to show that to us. Unfortunately during that period she was not able to stick to the general FairMail rules and was not offered a participation contract.
Dante in action
With Bryan and Dante joining the team there are currently 27 teenagers who offer their pictures through FairMail in Peru and 52 in total (including India and Morocco). By the end of the year we hope to fill 2 more vacancies.
Three years ago FairMail founders Peter and Janneke decided to rent out their house in the Netherlands and travel full-time like “digital nomads” between FairMail’s different production and sales countries. Like many other digital nomads nowadays, they travel the world facilitated by modern day technology while making a living. Here are a few of their tips for other people who want to make their company virtual, see a lot of the world and experience some adventure.
Tip 1: Exchange your office for “Dropbox teams”
Dropbox is a well-known application to exchange files and documents. Just before FairMail closed its office in the Netherlands and started going virtual “Dropbox teams” came out. This gives us the opportunity to continually synchronize all the files on our travelling laptops with the computers in the FairMail offices in Peru and India. Plus we have a safe backup on the dropbox server in case our laptops crash or get stolen. This way we can share 1 terabyte in data, read the daily reports from our local managers in real-time and directly view the pictures of our teenage photographers. But even better then with other cloud applications, dropbox gives us the possibility to always have access to our files, even when internet or the electricity is down (quite common in Peru and India). At 500 euro per year we managed to save a lot in rent by being able to pack our office in our laptop cases. Which of course also benefits the income of our teenagers.
Digital nomad in Moroccan cafe
Tip 2: Take a Skype-In number so people can always reach you on a land line.
Skype is also very common by now for free calls over internet. So it makes perfect sense that digital nomads make use of this to stay in touch with their customers. Having a fixed land line number does give people more trust though and is better for your reputation than just a skype ID. That is why FairMail purchased an online Skype number. If you call to the Amsterdam based land line number 00-31-(0)20-8932239 you will automatically be connected to one of our laptops for free, no matter where in the world we are, without the customer even noticing it. Except of course if we sound a bit sleepy due to the time difference.
Digital nomad in the Himalaya’s
Tip 3: Produce your digital product close to your market.
As a modern fair trade producer you should embrace the positive sides of new technology instead of staying stuck in the old fashioned way of printing the cards where the pictures are taken and then shipping them to our customers. Digital photographs are nothing more than 0 and 1’s on a computer. So why not send those directly to the printer closest to our customers for printing? It saves a lot of transport- and storage costs, shortens your “time to market”, allows you to be more flexible with your stock and it’s better for the environment too. That’s why FairMail works with publishers in different countries who print the FairMail cards locally. Customers can also design a real FairMail card online and receive it in their mailbox the next day!
The great thing about FairMail is that it allows our teenagers to transform the free resource of local beauty into money to pay for their own education. During four “Garbage Art” workshops we went one step further, transforming garbage collected during clean-ups into large scale works of art. Some pictures of the art work will be available on new FairMail cards soon.
The workshops were inspired by the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and his Waste Land project at Brazil’s largest garbage dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. After seeing his work the FairMail teenagers in Peru and India developed their own ideas for huge works of art made from garbage.
FairMail India team collecting garbage
To make the garbage art suitable for FairMail cards we gave it a little FairMail twist, using greeting card themes like “Good trip”, “Freedom”, “Thank you” and “Get well soon”. With the whole team we headed out into the Nagwa slum and along Huanchaco’s polluted beach to collect garbage in the necessary colours to actually make the art work.
Below you can see the end result and “Making of” time lapse videos of the four groups of FairMail teenagers: “Los 5 artistas”, “The photo Ninja’s”, “los Wheels” and “Los Genios”.
Thanks to FairMail volunteers Julian, Jessica, Michael and Samantha who organized and helped out during the workshops.
12 new FairMail cards have come available in our webshop.
Some of the best pictures taken by our teenage photographers in Peru and India where converted into beautiful new cards for different occasions like “Birthday”, “Condolence”, “Marriage” and “New home”.
The photographer pictured on the back of each card receives 50% of the profit made on the sale to invest in his or her own education.
