Harmony Day

Peace Remains Hungry to Change the World

During a workshop focused on how products like cotton shirts are made, students were asked to locate particular South American countries on a map. Most students were able to locate Venezuela and Haiti, but few knew of the injustices – poor wages and harsh working conditions – so prevalent in those countries.

Peace alumna Dr. Michelle Kassen ’88 shares her research on the lack of healthcare and spread of HIV/AIDS in India during Peace’s Harmony Day.

Queen of Peace teacher Tara DeLeon and Marian Waltz from The Third World Shoppe of Ft. Wayne complete a transaction at Peace’s mini fair trade market. Handmade toys, candles, figurines, clothing, books, and Divine Chocolate were on sale during Peace’s Nov. 29 Harmony Day. The market was meant to give students the opportunity to help third-world producers earn fair wages for their labor.

Peace students enjoy a sample of Divine Chocolate, made and packaged by Ghanaian cocoa farmers who with the help of a British company, The Body Shop, set up world’s first farmer-owned fair trade chocolate company.

Burbank, IL – December 4, 2007 – From Ghana, to Venezuela, to India, to Uganda, Peace students took a trip around the world on Nov. 29 to explore the harsh and often tragic realities that many find too hard to believe. Queen of Peace High School held its first Harmony Day of the year, entitled Global Economy-Third World Realities. During this full-day event at Peace, speakers from the community and student groups facilitated workshops aimed at raising an awareness of the issues that third-world men, women and children face daily.

Shayna Harris from Divine Chocolate spoke to students about cocoa farmers in Ghana. “Because cocoa farmers in Ghana were receiving less than a dollar a day for their labor, a group of Ghanaian farmers – Kuapa Kokoo – decide to create Divine Chocolate in 1997, the world’s first and only farmer-owned fair trade chocolate company,” Harris shared.

Students learned that the term fair trade refers to the building of dignified trading relationships between consumers in the North and producers in developing countries with particular focus paid to health and safety regulations, a guaranteed price for products, gender equity, job training, and educational and leadership opportunities. For every bar of Divine Chocolate sold, these shareholder farmers, who also design the product’s symbolic packaging, receive a fair price as well as a social premium – money going back into the farmers’ communities to build and maintain schools and hospitals. At the conclusion of her presentation, Harris showed students how to become advocates for fair trade.

“Are you Hungry to Change the World?” she asked. “Use your dollar as your voice. You can ask your local supermarkets and school to stock fair trade products like chocolate, coffee, tea, fruit and milk. You can do fair trade fundraising at your school. You can learn more about these issues. Most importantly, you can ask, ask, ask. Without asking for these products in your community, nothing can change.”

Students also heard from Jim Goetsch and Marian Waltz from The Third World Shoppe of Ft. Wayne. Holding up a black cotton shirt with a message of global unity sewn on the front, they showed students who’s involved in the shirt’s production from cotton pickers and seamstresses in Venezuela and Haiti, to chemical and synthetic fiber filament plant workers in New Jersey, to sales personnel in Burbank, IL. While the shirt may be sold in Burbank, IL for $15, the South American workers who provided the essential labor and materials to produce the shirt may only see 50 cents of that $15.

“It’s ironic that these workers cannot even afford to pay for the shirt they helped produce. And though the shirt totes a message of global unity with the world’s flags sewn on front, this is truly a sweatshop shirt,” Waltz stated.

Next, Peace alumna Dr. Michelle Kassen ’88 took students on a virtual tour of her trips to India where she studied rural healthcare and the impact of HIV and AIDS on women. During her slideshow, gasps filled the theater as students viewed photos of women and children suffering from diseases that many today considered old-world or even eradicated.

“In rural areas where families must make their homes of hay and unsanitary materials, diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis are eating away at the limbs of small babies and their mothers,” Kassen shared.

Kassen also noted, “AIDS is an epidemic in India just as it is in Africa. Due to arranged marriages and the promiscuous behaviors of truck drivers traveling through the rural regions, housewives are heavily impacted by this disease.” In fact, because families are being torn apart by the disease, the overall economy is now suffering. Working age people are becoming infected, leading to the collapse of local economies and overall lower productivity – an issue affecting the U.S.

Members of Queen of Peace’s Human Rights Task Force facilitated a final workshop on Uganda’s Invisible Children, or so-called Night Commuters. The 30 members of the task force described the unique and tragic circumstances for children in Uganda. Because rebel armies like the Lord’s Resistance Army abduct children at night and force them to become child soldiers, most Ugandan children must roam from place to place to find locations to sleep. They leave their families, become their own parents, and live in cold, wet, barren basements beneath hospitals – a story so unbelievable and haunting that if it wasn’t documented by film crews, would seem like the plot of a best-selling fiction tale.

Task force students Emily Boyle, Victoria Jorden, and Sam Bartkowiak encouraged students to become active in spreading awareness of this issue. Every student was given a colored ribbon to wear, each color representing the stories of these Ugandan Night Commuters. They were asked to tie these ribbons around their wrists, tell the stories of these children to those who will listen, and in so doing, support the lives of these children.

Peace also made efforts to engage students actively throughout the day. Jasmine Schmidt from The Mora and Mahogany Corporation led a hands-on workshop for students, introducing them to the concepts of global equity, social justice, and principles of fair trade.

Schmidt called students up to the gym stage and simulated a sales transaction where one student purchased a trendy shirt from a store clerk. During the transaction students learned how the money they use at stores is distributed. Students were shocked to find out that on a 20-dollar purchase, a couple of dollars goes to the clerk and store owners’ paychecks, a few more dollars to the middleman distributor and manufacturer, and then only one dollar or less to the actual producer. Students saw what it meant to be devalued and live on only one dollar a day.

During lunch periods, students also had the opportunity to help third-world producers. A mini fair trade market was set up outside the cafeteria where handmade crafts, scarves, clothing, chocolate, toys, and goodies were on sale. This mini bazaar gave students a taste of the kind of large-scale fair trade market Peace will host on the weekend of April 26 and 27.

“As Women of Peace, we are challenged to live the Dominican values of community, partnership, justice, compassion, and truth. How can you tell the stories of others that you can hardly believe yourself? You must put yourselves in the shoes of these men, women and children. Think of your own childhood in comparison. Keep your hearts and minds open. Stand strongly and proudly for issues of social justice. This is your real test as Women of Peace,” Joyce Cruse, moderator of the human rights task force, told students.

Through its Harmony Program, which always incorporates prayer services, Peace continues its mission of building a sense of community both with those inside and outside the confines of the institution. The program aims to engage students in others’ cultures, faiths, and lives so that all have access to the knowledge and tools necessary to become agents of positive change.