Sanctuary Spring's CSR Focus Helps Women Who Escaped Prostitution

CSR professionals today have a new option of greeting cards to choose from. Sanctuary Spring recently launched a new line of fair trade greeting cards. Handcrafting these cards on the company's behalf is a group of women who have escaped prostitution in the Philippines. It's a partnership between Sanctuary Spring and a local charity as part of a holistic restorative process project for these women.

We live amidst a world caught up in an economic downturn, ongoing oil spills, devastating floods in Pakistan, Venezuela sending troops to its border with Colombia, just to name a few of the circumstances that are impacting our lives as humans, businesses, ecosystems and cultures.  So it's welcome news when companies, such as Sanctuary Spring and Prosperity Candle, create businesses whose CSR focus is entrenched in improving the lives of humans who face poverty, uncertainty and danger in eeking a livelihood for their families.

The stories behind each of these women are common in the underworld of human trafficking. Take the case of "Jemela." When her mom got sick, the family lost the home, and they were in desperate need for work. Imagine her surprise when the waitress gig she thought she was taking turned out to be a life in prostitution. Then there's "Loran," who lost her mom at 9-years-old and then her father abandoned the family. She along with her oldest sister were left to care for 8 younger siblings. She scraped by, worked babysitting jobs but at the age of 15 eventually turned to prostitution to make enough money help support the family. Now, with money she has made and saved from being a card maker, she's able to send her two daughters to school and hopes to one day manage her own store.

I hope that CSR professionals consider making a case in their organizations to swap their 'regular' suppliers of marketing premiums and corporate gifts to clients, customers and vendors with suppliers of fair trade products that help the disadvantaged become more empowered and reclaim their dignity and sense of self-worth. Sanctuary Spring is the brainchild of Good Paper, a San Francisco-based company that distributes fair trade greeting cards and is a member of the Fair Trade Federation. They also espouse a commitment to healthy wages, child labor protection, and environmental sustainability. They're the same company whose CSR mission also carries through in their Cards from Africa greeting card line, employing young folks who have been orphaned by genocide or diseases such as AIDS.

While may businesses on our globe are not designed with a mission of solving social problems or environmental challenges, it's encouraging nonetheless to know that CSR strategies can include support of suppliers whose products are so aligned.