About
OVERVIEW
Founder's story
The Good Shepherd Sisters are in 67 countries. Their mission is to empower women and girls and their families who are marginalized in society for various reasons. They believe passionately in the dignity and unique value of each person. This commits them to join with all who struggle for a world which is just and fair for all.
For people in many parts of the world, poverty is the major enemy. This poverty is caused by the behaviors of companies and major players on the global economic landscape, by war and violence, by natural disasters, or by the corruption of national leaders. Yet the effect on the lives of the people is the same. They suffer malnutrition, ill health, unemployment, illiteracy, homelessness, and constant anxiety for the future of their children. Women and children are the ones most likely to bear the heaviest burdens of poverty.
The Good Shepherd Sisters have established many skills training and employment generating projects for many individuals, and especially women, who face such poverty. These employment projects often have a local market focus, such as a cooperative laundry run in Davao, Philippines, a jam-making enterprise in Baguio, Philippines, a leather goods site in Bangalore, India, a small bakery in Peru, and a welding project in El Obeid, Sudan.
Other projects need markets outside their local areas. This is where the international network of the Good Shepherd Sisters is able to assist, through organizations like HandCrafting Justice in the US, Sharing Fair in the UK and Canada, and the Good Shepherd Trading Circle in Australia and New Zealand.
Our mission
As an international network, we work in partnership with women and those in social and economic distress. We promote human dignity and justice by creating opportunities for economic and social transformation. We do this by marketing items they make, raising consciousness of the situations in which they live, creating opportunities for women and men in the U.S. to get involved, telling the stories of women, men and children, and creating networks of justice and solidarity in search of sustainable economic options for those in the developing world.
Our philosophy
The types of products we sell
Pottery, Toys, Clothing, Linens, Cards, Leather, Indigenous Art and much more!
Where the producers live and work
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay.
Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal. Asia: India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand
Projects we support
How we select what we sell
What makes us unique
More information about us
HandCrafting Justice is a fair trade partnership working with women struggling for economic justice and independence in developing countries.
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