Lisa Zaslow is a guest blogger and the views expressed herein are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of Shared Interest Society.

Lisa is a passionate fair trade and microfinance activist currently living in North Carolina, USA. She is the founder of Blue People Fair Trade Ltd., an online store that specializes in fair trade and environmentally friendly accessories from all over the world. If you would like to be a guest blogger, please contact us with your interest.

Alit Agung, founder of Yayasan Mitra Bali, saw in 1991 that the 90,000 rural handicraft workers in Bali were either being left out of the thriving tourism industry altogether or were being exploited by the middlemen and art shops that served tourism. Alit suspected that markets were the most effective way to transform the lives of exploited craft producers in rural villages and so he set out to develop a transparent fair trade system for craftspeople which strives to open access to market information, develop business skills for craftspeople to become more competitive, as well as helping to create social and economic sustainability in their villages. And in 1993 Yayasan Mitra Bali was born.  Alit says of the objectives of his organization “…more than ideology, more than just words, we offer producers a realistic plan for material and social progress which is not based on exploitation or ecological degradation”.

Besides providing craft workers with skills training in design, quality control, business organization, marketing and helping to lower dependence on tourism by moving from souvenirs to more useful crafts, Alit and the Foundation continue to work on changing attitudes in Bali on issues such as tourism land use, natural resource conservation, maintaining communal traditions and production sustainability.

You can find some of the stunning sterling silver jewelry crafted by the artisans at Mitra Bali at Blue People Fair Trade.

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