SWEET JUSTICE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY FROM LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF

Celebrate this Valentine’s Day with a sweet gift that means dignity and respect to more than 47,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana: fairly traded Divine brand chocolate from the Lutheran World Relief Chocolate Project.  Give a special edition Valentine’s Day gift bag, basket or box which combines Fair Trade chocolate with Fair Trade handcrafts from the Lutheran World Relief Handcraft Project.                                             

The heavenly chocolate with a heart featured in the Valentine’s Day gift bag, box and basket is made with cocoa from Kuapa Kokoo, a Fair Trade cooperative in Ghana. Kuapa members pool their crops to sell directly to international buyers for a fair price. Like other Fair Trade cooperatives, Kuapa members use these funds to benefit their community, building wells, funding education, and providing mobile medical units for cocoa-growing communities.

But here’s the sweetest part: the members of Kuapa Kokoo are also part owners of the Day Chocolate Company, manufacturers of Divine brand chocolate bars, and benefit not only when they sell their beans at a Fair Trade price, but again when they make business decisions and receive a share of the profits from the sales of the cocoa products.

“We all have to go shopping. Fair Trade is just shopping with respect,” said Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase, managing director of Kuapa Kokoo. The LWR Chocolate Project makes it easy to shop with respect by purchasing Fair Trade Divine brand chocolate bars online, or by phone, fax or mail.

“What better way to show love on Valentine’s Day than to give a gift that lets your friends and loved ones indulge their senses and satisfy their souls,” said Kattie Somerfeld, Fair Trade Projects Coordinator at LWR. “Giving Divine Chocolate from the LWR Chocolate project is a gift that keeps on giving — to your loved ones as well as to farmers and their communities.”

Plan ahead now to celebrate Easter with Fair Trade chocolate as well. Divine Fair Trade Easter Eggs will be available in February. The red and gold foil-wrapped chocolate eggs are made with the same delicious Fair Trade milk chocolate used in Divine chocolate bars.

To order a Valentine’s Day bag, basket, box, or any chocolate bar, log on to lwr.org/chocolate or call 1-888-294-9660. The LWR Chocolate Project is a partnership of Lutheran World Relief and SERRV International. SERRV donates a portion of all LWR Chocolate Project sales to support LWR’s relief and development projects around the world.

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF OFFERS VALENTINE'S DAY HANDCRAFTS
WITH HEART

Valentine’s Day is a time to demonstrate your love to those close to you. While doing so, you can also show love to small-scale artisans half a world away.

When you shop through the Lutheran World Relief Handcraft Project, you receive beautiful handcrafts and ensure that the artisans are paid fairly for their products and treated with respect. Your purchases provide income, dignity and hope to artisans and their families.

And just in time for Valentine’s Day, A Greater Gift, Lutheran World Relief’s partner in the Lutheran World Relief Handcraft Project, offers new handcrafted gifts with a heart — from a lots-of-love hand-woven silk scarf made in India to a hand-blown glass bud vase made in Guatemala.

Through sales of Fair Trade handcrafts, artisans earn the income they need to feed their families, educate their children and improve their communities.

Kisii, a city in western Kenya near Lake Victoria, is surrounded by soapstone quarries and is well-known both for the quality of its soapstone and the skill of its carvers. Since export sales for the Nyabigena Carvers Cooperative dried up in 1999, the 150 members have worked hard to find new markets for their carvings.  Besides providing jobs and income for their community, the Nyabigena Soapstone Carvers organization also sponsors community development projects like a women's literacy program, HIV/AIDS education, and a program which supports school dropouts, encouraging them to finish school. 

This Valentine’s Day, select gifts like a heart-shaped soapstone box crafted by Kenya’s Nyabigena Soapstone Carvers and spread the love — to the recipient as well as the artisan who produced the gift. Log on to lwr.org/handcraft to place your order today!

The LWR Handcraft Project is a partnership of Lutheran World Relief and A Greater Gift, a nonprofit program of SERRV International. SERRV donates a portion of all LWR Handcraft Project sales to support LWR’s relief and development projects around the world.