Posts Tagged ‘teenagers’

Mariaflor puts roof on family house

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

mariaflor200Great news from Mariaflor who managed to improve her families house with a real door and a sturdy roof out of her earnings from the sale of her FairMail cards. Ever since a new pub opened its doors a few doors down the block the old door made of recycled bits of steel no longer offered the necessary protection from invading drunks. Together with her mother and FairMail Peru’s manager they went to the hard ware store to by the necessary materials and contract a handy man. Now the job is finished and visitors to Mariaflor’s house can sit in a roofed living room in stead of an open air space between three mud brick walls.

The best thing of all is that Mariaflor was able to provide a serious contribution to her family. She is often arguing with her mother’s new boy friend who says she is wasting her time with FairMail and she should go find a “real” job in stead of continue studying. Now Mariaflor has contributed more to the housing of then the “family chief” who spends a big part of his earning drinking beer.  Yeah, girl power!

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1. maria flor’s mother opening her new door.

2. their old door

3. constructing their new roof

4. new roof installed!

Photographer Maria flor starts university

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

We are very proud of Maria flor from FairMail Peru. Here she is with three of her friend with whom she finished pre-university year.

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In January 2011 she will start her 4 year course in communication sciences. This acheivement didn’t come easily at all for Maria flor. With her family she is living next to the Trujillo prison where she ended up when she moved to the big city with her mother. Jobs weren’t easy to come by, so like many of the inhabitants of the “El Milagro” slum (which means the miracle in Spanish!) she ended up working on the garbage belt. With the collection of paper, tin, iron and glass they managed to earn just enough to get by. By now her mother had a new man. He and Mariaflor didn’t get along wel, but two brothers and a sister followed. With the help of ACJ (a community centre in El Milagro) and later FairMail she managed to finish secondary school last year.

Because the education tought at the public school in El Milagro is of low quality had to prepare herself last year before being able to aply for the prestigous Cesar Vallejo university in Trujillo. She also succeded in that. The only problem was she hadn’t earned enough money yet with her photography for FairMail to start. That’s why the last months she has been working as a waitress in the same restaurant her mother is working as a cook. Despite the horrible situation at home (her father can’t keep his hands to himself), Maria flor is determined to give her family better oppertunities then the ones she had. That is why we are so proud of her breaking the  circle of poverty! Of course we will be in touch with Maria flor and monitoring her university results.

Want to read more about Mariaflor, check her pictures or send her an e-mail to congratulate  her? Then click here.

Going to school with FairMail in India

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Thanks to your purchases of FairMail cards our teenage photographers in India can “go to school with FairMail”. So we thought it would be fun to take YOU to school in India. Below you can see how some of the teenagers from FairMail India go to their schools and what it is like there.

Ankita walks from her home to school with a friend:

Ankita walking to her school

Anuj goes to school by bike, which he bought with his FairMail money. Before they go into class they pray together outside.
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Akaash and Anil walk together to their tutor. Both can’t go to an ordinary school yet, so they use their FairMail money to hire a private teacher and get them back to a normal school level.

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Anshu show FairMail pioneer Janneke where her school is.
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Sandhya’s school just moved. So she bought a bicycle with her FairMail money to get to her school. She even gets dancing lessons there!
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Kaushal goes to the same school as Sandhya and so he also bought a bike! He really enjoys the music lessons.
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Record earnings for FairMail teenagers

Monday, December 14th, 2009

With the export of the new card collection to the Netherlands FairMail’s teenage photographer acheived record earnings again over the past months.

In total FairMail’s 27 teenage photographers earned more then 7.500 euro’s in education money, packaging wage and health insurance. In average the teenagers in Peru earned 32% more then the local fair trade liveable wage and the Indian teenagers even 252% more the the local fair trade liveable wage! Since the beginning of FairMail a total of 24.787 euro was earned by the teenagers.

Big earners in Peru where David, Cinthia and Rosita. While in India Anil, Kaushal and Dhiraj did good business with their popular cards. On the new photographers pages you can now also see how much each teenager has earned with the sale of their cards over their whole career. Check it out!