from the Beleza website:

Fair trade is just what the term implies. This is how you treat people fairly for their hard work and respect them for their lives. Some of the basic principles of fair trade include the following.

  • Providing fair wages in the local context,
  • Supporting safe, healthy, and participatory workplaces,
  • Supplying financial and technical support to build capacity,
  • Ensuring environmental sustainability,
  • Respecting cultural identity,
  • Building direct and long-term relationships, and
  • Sharing the lives of our producers with our customers to help them understand more about the need for fair trade..

Fair trade is not about charity. It is a holistic approach to trade and development that aims to alter the ways in which commerce is conducted, so that trade can empower the poorest of the poor. Fair trade organizations seek to create sustainable and positive change in developing and developed countries.

Fair trade fosters an equitable and fair partnership between businesses and organizations in the developed world and producers in the developing world. Moreover, Fair Trade businesses cultivate long-term and direct relationships with producers, because they know these connections are a highly effective way to help producers help themselves. While Beleza is not an official member of any fair trade organization, we are totally committed to displaying more than the minimum requirements of such organizations.