There is a woman in Haiti who is desperately searching for a way to make a living so that she won’t have to place her children in an orphanage. In Uganda, a mother with AIDS is confined to a sick bed and wishes she could find a way to earn the money needed for her medication.
A mother of three in East Brainerd partners with Trades of Hope to change the lives of these women and countless others.
“I have never met them but they are still my sisters – they are just like me,” said Linda Townsend, a “compassion entrepreneur” with Trades of Hope. “I cannot imagine not being able to give my children the basic necessities. It breaks my heart.”
Trades of Hope is a mission-minded company that deals in Fair Trade products, empowering more than 130 self-employed representatives with the ability to aid women across the globe by selling their handmade, one-of-a-kind creations at home parties and online. Through selling the merchandise made by women that live in far away and sometimes impoverished countries, Townsend said she and other compassion entrepreneurs give those women hope and a purpose by helping them earn a way to provide for their families.
“[The women] want the opportunity; they don’t want the charity,” Townsend said. “What we give is usually six times what they would normally make if employed in their own country.”