'Gift that gives twice' help Third World artisans

If the prospect of holiday shopping has you feeling Scrooge-like, Sharon and Norm Ewert open their Wheaton home this week to give you a chance to shop in a cozy atmosphere and feel twice the glee of holiday giving.

Shoppers at the Ewerts' annual international holiday gift sale will be able to buy handmade crafts for friends and family today through Saturday that will benefit people in Third World countries.

"It's a gift that gives twice," said Jane Halteman, manager at Glen Ellyn's Ten Thousand Villages store, which provides much of the merchandise for the special event and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Wheaton College professors are again teaming up with Ten Thousand Villages, a not-for-profit ministry of the Lombard Mennonite Church, to give area residents a chance to purchase fair-trade crafts from Asia, Africa, South America and Central America.

"You can be assured no one is being tied to a loom," Halteman said, adding artisans also are guaranteed a fair wage.

Available items include rugs, table cloths, napkins and clothing, as well as pottery, paper products like journals and note cards, toys and games, native instruments, coffee and chocolate -- to name a few.

The artisans who work in producer groups are paid half initially by Ten Thousand Villages, an alternative trade organization and job creation program of the Mennonite Church, so they can pay for supplies. They get the remainder afterward. They get paid the full price of items even if they are damaged during shipping, Halteman added.

The profits enable artisans to support their families and communities to provide schools, medical care and more, Halteman said.

The Ewerts, who have traveled to some of the areas, have seen the difference the ministry has made in the artisans' lives.

On a past visit, for example, they saw a Pakistani village where instead of going to school the children were playing in polluted sewer water, Sharon Ewert recalled.

Last year, the couple was able to give out achievement awards to students at a school assembly and they saw the old sewer capped and fresh running water, she said.

"It was very inspiring for us," she said.

Having a market to sell their crafts to people around the world gives artisans a sense of pride, she added.

"This really empowers them. It builds a sense of self-worth," Sharon Ewert said. "They know people over here care."

The cooperative effort in some areas also has enabled different groups to forge peace and develop otherwise unlikely partnerships.

Christians and Muslims work side by side in Pakistan to create the Oriental rugs, and widows from both sides of the 1994 Rwanda genocide work together to make clothing, Norm Ewert said.

"These visits impress on us the importance of doing this (event)," he said. "It's a mere drop in the bucket, but it does make a difference.

"It's like an urban barn-raising. Instead of building a barn here, we're helping build schools around the world."

Hours of the sale are 4 to 8 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Ewert home, 401 N. Scott St. Free refreshments will be offered.

Hours for the Glen Ellyn store, 499 Pennsylvania Ave., are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. Starting Nov. 27, hours will be extended until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

If you go

What: Holiday gift and rug sale to benefit Third World artisans

When: 4 to 8 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Where: Ewert home, 401 N. Scott St., Wheaton

Details: Glen Ellyn Ten Thousand Villages store, (630) 790-1166