Nicaragua
Beyond Fair Trade: Building Just Relationships
There are no upcoming programs scheduled at this time. Please come back later or inquire about setting your own program dates.
UUCSJ partners with Equal Exchange to offer interfaith journeys to Nicaragua.
Experience a week-long immersion that explores the power of fair trade to improve the lives of producers and help consumers live their values
What is this journey like?
Based in the coffee growing regions around Esteli, we will stay with and learn from members of an Equal Exchange coffee cooperative, assist with harvest or coffee planting, and meet with a variety of feminist and human rights groups.
What are the upcoming Fair Trade journeys?
There are no upcoming programs scheduled at this time. Please come back later or inquire about setting your own program dates.
Who can go on a Fair Trade journey?
This journey is designed as an interfaith program. It is open to participants from any background who are interested in exploring the connection between spirituality and social justice.
Every journey includes 1-2 representatives from Equal Exchange, who serve as fair trade experts, and the journey will be led by 1-2 UUCSJ Program Leaders.
We also travel with an on-the-ground Nicaragua consultant, a translator and a bus driver.
How much does a Fair Trade journey cost?
Cost: $1,000 per person, not including airfare. Additional expenses may include passport application or renewal and vaccinations. UUCSJ is committed to making our programs accessible to all regardless of their financial situation.
Financial aid is available for up to 50% of program costs based on need and is awarded on a first come, first serve basis. Please fill out the financial aid request section of the program application.
For additional fundraising we recommend that participants use Faithify, the Unitarian Universalist crowd funding website, which can help individuals raise money to cover their costs.
What is Equal Exchange?
From the Equal Exchange website:
Our Mission
Equal Exchange’s mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.
Our Story
Equal Exchange has created Big Change for over 25 years. It all started with an idea: what if food could be traded in a way that is honest and fair, a way that empowers both farmers and consumers? Our founders – Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal and Michael Rozyne – asked this question as they envisioned a trade model that values farmers and consumers. So they took a big risk and plunged full-force into changing a broken food system. In 1986, they started with fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua and didn’t look back. Read our story
Our Model
At Equal Exchange we believe that we should expect no less from ourselves and each other than we demand of our farmer partners. For that reason we have organized ourselves as a democratic worker cooperative, now one of the largest in the country. A worker cooperative is an alternative for-profit structure based upon standard democratic principles. It is not designed to maximize profits, nor returns to investors, but rather to bring to the workplace many of the rights and responsibilities that we hold as citizens in our communities. More
Frequently Asked Questions
Click here to download our Frequently Asked Questions about this program.
Sample Itinerary
Click here to download a sample itinerary for this program.
Resources for the Fair Trade Journey:
Fair Trade Comic
This graphic pamphlet from Equal Exchange explains some of the history and philosophy behind the Fair Trade movement.
Living in the Shadow of the Eagle
We strongly recommend this highly readable book containing an important overview of Nicaragua’s history.
Harvest of Empire
A full-length film which offers an invaluable glance at the history of US imperialism in Latin America.
