Video update by FairMail Peru photographer Anidela
The great thing about the FairMail cards is that you can see on the back of each card who you are supporting directly with your purchase. Each FairMail teenager has his or her own story about dreams, hardships, passions and getting ahead in life.
We have now updated the personal profile pages of our current photographers in Peru with 9 new recorded video updates. You can view all of them below or on each teenager’s personal profile page.
FairMail Peru photographer Paul telling about his highs and lows
For the Peruvian teenagers 2015 was a year full of broken bones, broken friendships, getting first place, getting promoted, valuable lessons in life and many other things.
Especially for you, we asked the teenagers to update their personal profile pages with last year’s highs and lows. Plus their plans for the coming year, explaining how they plan to use their part of the earnings from the sale of their fair trade FairMail cards to enter university, study English and start a new business among other things.
Click here to read their own stories.
We also uploaded short new videos of the 4 newest FairMail teenagers presenting themselves which you can view below:
Kaushal’s house with a new top floor
Despite the very sad news about FairMail India closing its doors in October 2014, we are happy that the sale of the Indian FairMail cards is still having a positive impact on the teenagers and their families. In the last few months of 2014 five of the teenagers invested more than 100.000 rupees (>1.500 euro) in the construction of their family homes.
For example 17 year old Aradhana started the construction of her families own house in the outskirts of Varanasi which means they will no longer have to pay rent from her father’s small wage as cart puller. Kaushal managed to provide his family with an improved second story of their home. Meanwhile Sandhya invested in fully replacing the tiny room she lived in with her entire family for a new 2 story house. Anil Kumar and Anil Rao also managed to make significant improvements to their homes and to provide due maintenance. In the case of Anil Rao allowing his family to earn more money renting out part of their home to other people.
Sandhya’s new home under construction
We are very happy with this tiny bit of good news after the difficult decision to close down FairMail India. Unfortunately our decision still seems like the least bad decision to take as tension between some of the former teenager’s families still persists. Also our former team member is still being held in jail since July 2014 on accusations which still haven’t been investigated properly. A very sad situation which seems increasingly difficult to influence despite our intents.
New on FairMail’s website are the personal video profiles of our teenage photographers in which they introduce themselves and talk about their aspirations.
The videos can be found on each teenagers personal profile page, like this one of 16 year old Aradhana from India.
Here, besides watching the videos, you can also read about their earnings, what they have spent their money on so far, send them an email, connect to their facebook, view their pictures and of course buy their cards!
It has never been easier to be in touch with your fair trade producer, this way giving FairMail’s social impact 50 faces!
FairMail photographer Aradhana
Hi!
I am Aradhana, one of the FairMail teenagers in India. I am very happy to be a part of FairMail as I did not know any things about photography. Few of my classmates were working in FairMail and I was thinking if I also get chance to work in FairMail will be precious things in my life because I heard many good things about FairMail.
Aradhana's family in front of her house
I was hopeless about my future because I want to become a doctor and my parents are very poor as my father is a rickshaw puller and my mother is a house wife. So I was thinking a lot about my future that how can I achieve my goal and now I see my friends and how much positively they are thinking about their goal that they can fulfill as FairMail helps them to make them to think positive and helps them through selecting a good photos to make them cards so they can earn money for their educations.
So now I think I can also reach my goal by doing hard work in FairMail and my study. I also get as a medical fund for me and for my family through which I can help my parents and now my parents are proud on me so many thanks to FairMail.
Many Greetings
Aradhana Singh.
(If you want to read more about Aradhana or want to send her an email click here. She doesn’t have cards yet that you can buy…)
Betty from FairMail Peru
Last week we received a message from one of our Peruvian photographers: Betty. Because of domestic problems she had to leave her house with her mother, sister and two brothers. Despite that though she is determined to bring the new beginning to a good end. This is the translation of her message:
Hello friends, my name is Betty.
I live in El Milagro (name of the outscirts of Tujillo where the cities garbage belt is situated) with my mother, sister and two brothers. Due to domestic problems my mother had to get seperated from my father. Now we only live with my mother. I am 17 years old and member of the asociación de jóvenes cristianos del Perú (ACJ red. Peruvian version of the YMCA).
Well, my family and I have always worked on the garbage belt to find materials which we could recycle and which I would have to sell. I was totally fed up with this work. When I participated in a ACJ workshop I heard people talk about an interesting company called FairMail. Unfortunately I did not know how you could get a job there, but I knew that one day I would succeed.
Betty preparing the mirror for a friendship post card
By now I am working for FairMail for almost 2 years. Itis cool because we work together like brothers and sisters. I am using the money I earned with my card sale to pay for things to finish my secondary school and for the admission acadamy I am studying in now. I want to take the exam to get admitted to the National University of Trujillo where I want to study communication sciences. I am happy with FairMail and that this way I was able to pay for my own study. And not have to be a burden for my parents now that they don’t have the money to support me in this.
Betty working on her new `New Home` card
Right now I am living with my mother, brothers and sister in the house of my grandma. There we built a little room for ourselfves out of reed mats so we have a place to sleep. I know that with the sale of my cards I will make progress in life and acheive the goals I have in mind for me and my family. So we can all live in happines.
Thanks to everyone. I invite you to buy the cards of FairMail India and FairMail Peru. I hope there are some cards that you wil like.
Thanks, Betty Chanta
(red. For more information about Betty, her cards and photos, click here)
In the end of December FairMail founder Peter den Hond left for a 3 week visit to FairMail Peru. Read all about his highs, his lows and his dilemmas:
“For me the three weeks where filled with respect for the endurance of the teenagers, dilemmas about cultural differences and fun during the travelling and shooting pictures together. Experiences that recharged my “FairMail batteries” to get back to work on FairMail in the Netherlands.
Respect
One of the goals of the trip was like always to tell the teenagers who their cards are being received by consumers in the west. Only when they know which cards sell well and for what type of images there is a demand can they adapt their product to the wishes of the market. And of course that way earn more money!
Besides strengthening the ties with the teenagers is very important for me. During the rest of the year we always miss each other greatly and you feel that even more when you speak to each other again. I have heard many personal stories again. Like one of the girls who is being beaten by her step father and had to ask police protection. Or another teenager whoms irresponsible dad hasn’t been sending money home to his family for a number of weeks. The family is now in debt just to buy food to eat. And the story about one of the ex-street children who now leaves in a boys home but is very worried about his mother because his family members at home are fighting alot. Sometimes even attacking each other with knives!
Luckily there are also good stories. In December Patricia, Mariluz and Yuli finished secondary school and have started follow-up education. Cinthia actually graduated to become a tourist guide (click here for more pictures on her facebook!). She is the first FairMail teenager to finish a multiple year higher education! And Juan Carlos is doing his practical period in a pizzeria. We once started FairMail to break the chain of poverty, so the teenagers can later establish families in which their kids will have better oppertunities then they received from their own parents. The sale of their cards is important for that, but their own perseverence keeps being the source of it all. That is why my respect for them is so big. Even inspiring!
Dilemmas
Over the whole of 2010 the profit for the teenagers in Peru grew by 30% compared to 2009 to a total of 12.500 euro. That’s great, but it can always be better! Dat caused by biggest dilemma. With my western view of things, oriented at efficiency and keeping strict rules, I saw that FairMail Peru was doing well, but could do a lot better. Should I accept that things are less efficient compared to when we where still living in Peru? Or should we move back to the strict and efficient base we had when Janneke started FairMail in 2006? And in that case would we be able to get more out of the concept of FairMail? Or just ruin things created by our local team?
A good example is one of the teenagers who takes pretty good pictures and because of that has a reasonable income from FairMail and also importantly has a lot of joy by being part of the “FairMail family”. But he is often late for classes and sometimes behaves very irresponsibly with the camera we lend him. Our local manager doesn’t always correct him in a disciplinary way and thus FairMail is not providing this teenager with the possibly valuable work experience we would like to offer. Also with respect to personal guidance there is still a lot to improve so he spends his earnings efficiently and effectively in his plan for the future which he still doesn’t have.
Fun
I could observe these kind of “problems” very well during the 9 day photography trip to the Peruvian Andes. During this great trip we worked really hard on new pictures for the 2011 Christmas Card collection (view the first results here). But we also got to know each other a lot better. For example during the 6 hour walk to a mountain lake at 4.620 meters where we literately had to drag each other to the top. (click here for more pictures on Facebook) Also the teenagers got to know new cultural aspects of their own country by staying with a local farmer family high in the mountains for 5 days. Especially when your parents can never take you on a holiday this is a great oppertunity for the kids to increase their world view.
After three intense weeks of being together the hard and emotional good bye that followed was predictable. At least we could say “See you in July”. And to Elmer we could even say “See you in May” when he will be coming to Europe for a 3 week promotional tour for FairMail!
Patricia working on UK’s corporate Christmas card picture
More and more FairMail’s teenage photographers receive concrete photo assignments from organizations looking for a certain image. The past few months they have been working on assignments for three corporate customers. A day care organization and institute providing mental care who where looking for a picture for their corporate Christmas card. And a publisher of a children’s yoga calendar.
Both for the teenagers and for the photography teachers it is very nice to work demand driven on a concrete assignment. With the idea in mind that the teenager with the best pictures gets paid for his or her photo everybody is really motivated to work hard.
Volunteer Elaine with her gang of young photographers and yoga models
According to Elaine, currently one of the two volunteer photography trainers in India, “All of the teenagers worked really hard on our yoga project. We went out into the community and worked from the teenagers rooftops with lots of younger children from the area. All the kids were very happy and excited to help out and we all had alot of fun! The deadline for the competition gave them something to focus on and it was great to see them so motivated and eager to take great shots, it also forced them to develop great ideas quickly and be really creative.”
Photographer Kaushal in action on his roof top
A selection of the best pictures has been sent to the three different clients who are evaluating the pictures. You can imagine just how excited the teenagers are to find out if their picture will be selected or not. And how happy he or she will be when they hear that a professional organization picked their picture.
It is still possible to have the teenagers take pictures for you on a no cure no pay basis. For instance for your employers corporate Christmas card. You can learn more about this option by clicking here or by contacting us directly.
Click here to watch the restults of the childrens yoga photoshoot and to vote for your favourite.
While the rest of the world is worried about recovery of the economy FairMail’s teenage photographers made record earnings in 2010!
In total the 27 photographers from Peru and India earned a total of 15.985 euro in 2010. Since FairMail started the grand total now adds up to 46.035 euro in generated income for the teenagers.
Top earner this year was Elmer Machuca Chacon from Peru who earned a total of 1.756 euro. He is currently our top photographer! In India both Kaushal and Anshu where very succesful earning a bit more then 500 euro each. Don’t forget that the kids are making this money during their 5 hour a weekly free photography classes provided by FairMail volunteers! Not bad, to earn money while you’re studying!
If you want to know how much each teenager has earned in total then go to their personal profile pages by clicking here.
Over the last few months Juan Carlos from FairMail Peru sold a lot of his cards. He is saving up his earnings to build an own hotel with restaurant where he wants to become the main cook. But on the short run he is not forgetting about his family. Even though he lived on the streets for a couple of years due to problems at home.
With his earnings he was able to help improve his parents house. With an epileptic mother and a father who often already spent his days earnings in the pub before getting home the house was not in a good shape. As you can see below it was built as cheap as possible with sun dried “adobe” bricks without any concrete structures. That works fine untill it starts raining or you get an earthquake.
The house is now built up again with proper baked bricks and a concrete reinforced frame to hold the weight of the house.
With the earnings of his Christmas cards Juan Carlos hopes to be able to put in proper glass windows too and a sturdy front door. As he says himself: “Never give up on your dreams and you will achieve them in the end!”
Click here to send Juan Carlos a congratulations email. And you also get to see all his cards and best pictures, which of course can be ordered in FairMail’s webshop.
