In the last 18 years, over 180 exploited and trafficked women in East Asia have experienced freedom at Starfish Project by getting a job to make beautiful, Fair Trade jewellery.
Alongside this, Starfish Project helps provide counselling, childcare, and the education needed to fill in the gaps lost in their basic schooling. There is no way to overstate the incredible transformation that it is for a woman to be able to leave a place of exploitation and benefit from a safe, dignified job. Mae Lee, who escaped trafficking in another country, loves to tell our customers: “I have found my freedom at Starfish Project”.
I came to Starfish Project nearly five years ago, having run a BAFTS shop in Gloucester that sold jewellery from Starfish Project. I knew that moving to the producer context in another country would deepen my understanding of how a Fair Trade product comes to be. However, I didn’t anticipate how much getting to know the women of Starfish Project would profoundly change my understanding of what people can achieve in a Fair Trade organisation.
In 2020, Lu suddenly moved with her daughter to our East Asia Headquarters from another city to ensure her safety. When she arrived, we needed to find a role for her in the office. There was some concern about the fact she’d not had the chance to finish a primary school level of education, and how this might limit the kind of work she could do. Lu recently reflected on this:
“When I arrived, the team offered me the
opportunity to become the Assistant to the
Marketing Director. I was shocked. My
education is very low – I only completed
year five. Usually, to be an Administration
Assistant, you need a much higher
education level. I never imagined that I
could do this job.”
However, within a few months, Lu had become a vital member of our marketing team!
“What products are we launching this month?” – “Ask Lu!”
“What is the status of our latest re-order?” – “Ask Lu!“
“What is our customer’s favourite product from the last collection?” – “Ask Lu!”
I remember after Black Friday weekend one year, we had a successful promotion event and Lu was eagerly watching our analytics dashboard on Shopify. As the day finished out, she went round the office with her laptop encouraging all the women in our production line with how many people loved the jewellery they had created! We knew we’d found not just an administrator, but a potential leader.
To cut a long-story short, Lu moved back to her hometown once it was safe and became the manager of a small team to manage our Wholesale Website – where BAFTS members can now order products from us. This includes every product you see on the website, every photo taken, every price and detail listed – it’s all completed by women who have experienced freedom at Starfish Project. I asked Lu what she’d like to say about these last few years to the BAFTS community:
“The growth during this period not only enabled me to make important personal progress in my career, but also made a positive contribution to the development of the entire team and company. Through learning and practice, I hope to continue to improve my leadership capabilities”
Lu’s courage to take on this role has not only demonstrated to the people who undervalued her for being a woman that she can learn, grow, and succeed in a business, it has also provided many opportunities for others to do the same. Nora, who manages all of the design on the wholesale websites, and other survivor leaders in our design team got together to make a video of Nora’s story. She is one of the most naturally creative people I have ever met, and she shares in the video how she used to draw on the walls of her village outside as a child, and now at Starfish Project, she has the opportunity to demonstrate that creative talent to the world.
That 6th Fair Trade principle from the WFTO for gender equity definitely feels more urgent for me since I’ve moved here, and since I’ve witnessed Lu and Nora’s examples. So many women tell me their families assumed they had no economic potential and so that’s why they were never supported to finish school or pursue their aspirations. Lu, Nora and their team show the world how wrong those assumptions were, and I love that our company gets to be along for the ride.
So, to return to my potentially provocative title, I’ve concluded that we need our business model to not only provide entry level work in jewellery making for women to leave exploitation. That is wonderful, but on its own it doesn’t cut it for me anymore. I want to make sure our business has a variety of career pathways so that every woman has the opportunity to pursue her talents and ambitions. We’ve struggled to find good language to describe this journey, but we’ve landed on Survivor Leadership. I’m proud to say that now the overwhelming majority of the work done to make Starfish Project’s UK business possible is completed by Survivor Leaders. Thank you for supporting their work! It means a lot to all of us to be part of a community like BAFTS that shares our vision to see ‘Every Woman Valued’.
Nathanael Arrowsmith
Chief Strategy Officer at Starfish Project