Pangea-Collection.com Blog – Artisan Jewellery

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and there is an important reason to celebrate mom this year. Pangea-Collection.com with your help is giving back to moms around the world. Purchasing a piece of fair trade artisan jewelry from Pangea-Collection.com is a gift that gives – to your mom and to moms around the world, though a $1 donation from every online order going to Opportunity International.

Pangea-Collection.com offers a distinctive selection of handcrafted fair trade and artisan jewelry from around the world. Starting from just $20, the site’s mother’s day gift guide has a perfect gift selection for every personality. Moreover, many of the pieces on Pangea-Collection.com are exquisite works of jewelry art created by artisans, the majority of whom are women.

Opportunity International is a microenterprise development organisation. They provide small loans – sometimes as little as $50 – and training to help entrepreneurs in the developing world start a business. As business grows, the entrepreneurs develop steady incomes, enabling them to feed, educate and provide for their families. By giving the entrepreneurial poor a “hand up” instead of a “hand out”, Opportunity International helps uplift entire communities through job creation. Founded in 1971, Opportunity International now serves over 1.2 million loan clients. Loan repayment rates are 98%; about 85% of loans go to women. On average each loan supports five family members.

Pangea-Collection.com is on “Mission Mom” honouring mothers but also Fair Trade Day which falls on May 9th, the day before Mother’s Day. There is a meaningful connection here: According to the Fair Trade Federation, 70% of the fair trade artisans are women, who are often the sole wage earners in their homes. Of all the impoverished, women are the poorest. The UN says women do 67% of the world’s work, earn only 10% of the world’s pay and own only 1% of the world’s property. Women are paid 30-40% less than men for comparable work. Women in developing countries work an average of 60-90 hours a week.

Whenever possible, Pangea-Collection.com is committed to working with Fair Trade organisation worldwide, as is witnessed through the variety of Fair Trade Jewelry collections available through the site.

Shop Pangea-collection.com from April 20th to May 4th 2009, and $1 from online orders will be donated to Opportunity International. Offer mom an alluring piece of the world, and cascade it to moms around the world.

As Patricia Pinkney creator of Pangea-Collection.com states, “After years of working in the corporate world, I wanted to do my small part to help enable artisans around the world, especially women. It is especially meaningful on Mother’s Day and Fair Trade Day to recognise the privilege we have living in this wonderful country while at the same time acknowledge that there are mothers around the world who are struggling to support their families. Together we can help them achieve the art of self reliance.”