Plowsharing Crafts Helps the Needy with Innovative Approach

By Jeffry Greenberg (West End Word)

     Excessive attention to individual gain often hinders the welfare of the world at large.  But the ‘family of man’ attitude of people like Rich Howard-Willms is certainly paying big dividends for some of our planet’s less fortunate inhabitants.

     Howard-Willms is manager of Plowsharing Crafts, a not-for-profit store in the University City Loop that helps the world’s needy by selling their craft items.  It is part of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) SELFHELP Crafts network.

     The entire program, which began in 1947, utilizes the services of 700 volunteers and a handful of paid employees to operate 110 shops across Canada and the United States.  The program aids some 30,000 families throughout the world.

     The St. Louis store, which opened in Maplewood, moved to 6301-A Delmar Blvd in 1987.  Howard-Willms has been with Plowsharing Crafts from the outset.

     “Members of the church (St. Louis Mennonite Fellowship) decided to start an outreach program, and this was a natural,” Howard-Willms said.  “I, being Canadian but married in America, couldn’t work for money at the time.  So, I ended up doing volunteer work.  Now, I’m the only paid person (small wages) among about 40 volunteers.”

     Plowsharing Crafts derives its name from Micah 4 in the Old Testament of the Bible: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…”  According to Howard-Willms, the name was chosen because of the Mennonite Church’s historical peaceful stance.

     Instead of strength through military action, the church spreads peace by providing on-going financial assistance to communities in foreign lands.

     “The overall aim of the church is to help people help themselves,” Howard-Willms said.  “We do that by getting crafts from developing countries to our warehouses in Akron, PA and Hamburg, Ontario then sell them through stores in the United States and Canada.

     “We’re a small bucket in a large ocean.  But our purpose is sort of like the old adage, ‘To give a person fish for one day is OK, but to teach him how to fish lasts a lifetime.’  Helping people create their own kind of business and develop things on their own is the way to go.  That can effect real change.”

     Howard-Willms has seen the benefit of the program firsthand.  He was one of 18 store managers who visited India and Bangladesh on a three-week trip last winter.

     His group has encouraged people to work together in cooperatives then set up savings accounts for their profits.  Six years ago, there was not a single copying machine in Saipur, a town of 150,000 people in Bangladesh.  Townspeople had to travel 30 miles to use one.  But now, a group of three women runs a thriving business of six copy machines—the only business run by women among hundreds of stalls in this patriarchal society.

     A highlight of Howard-Willms’ trip was observing the soap-stone work performed by many of the descendants of those who built the Taj Majal.  But Howard-Willms also remembers the tremendous dust created by the work, which forced the operation to close for a full year.

     Deforestation is a long-term problem in that region of northern India.  But some of the problems elsewhere are of a more immediate nature.

     “In Calcutta (Kolkata), there are 15 to 20 million people living in a place where there used to be 1 to 1.5 million,” Howard-Willms said.  “It’s so crowded and dirty.  What we consider a slum here is nothing by comparison.

    “In Bangladesh, five months previously, three-fourths of the country had an incredible flood.  We saw incredibly poor and impoverished conditions, but the people accepted their lifestyles and were happy to meet us.  They gave us flowers and coconut juice and even sang to us.”

     The townspeople are extremely grateful for the work that the SELFHELP Crafts program has provided, and for the sales that are generated through stores and offsite locations such as Sunday bazaars.

     In addition to helping those in the poorest nations of the world, SELFHELP assists native American Indian tribes like the Zuni and Navajo as well as people in Appalachia.

     Among the extremely poor of more developed countries are women, who traditionally receive fewer employment opportunities than me.  Also aided are handicapped people and rural dwellers who wish to remain in their home environments instead of seeking work in big cities.

     “We make connections with people in these areas,” Howard-Willms said.  “The way that the process works is that people make things and get paid right on the spot because they need it then.  We ask them to set a price instead of just giving them an amount of money.  Shipping, tariffs and export taxes are tacked onto the price we charge.  If $1 is the price, 50 cents goes to them and 50 cents to us.”

     Some of the Plowsharing Crafts products and prices are a large iron chess set from Cameroon ($295) and a smaller soap-stone version from Kenya ($95), beautiful wooden toys from Sri Lanka (each under $10), spiritual note cards from El Salvador (pack of six for $3) and jute coasters and placemats from Bangladesh (75 cents to $4.25). No taxes are charged.

     Other goods include hand-carved onyx from Pakistan, lovely sweaters from Uruguay and the Philippines, sets of carved wood zebra, elephant and giraffe bookends from Kenya, and rugs from Thailand and India.

     Howard-Willms admitted that, as a history major at the University of Waterloo (Ontario), he, like most SELFHELP managers, has no formal business training.  But that certainly isn’t evident in the program’s progress.

    SELFHELP has been growing at a phenomenal rate, with total sales more than tripling from $1.5 million to $5 million over the past 10 years.  Lack of financial knowledge has indeed been overshadowed by other qualities.

     “My main interest in school and real life are peace and justice issues,” Howard-Willms said.  “I came to St. Louis with the Peace in Justice Ministry.  Since none of us had any business acumen or background, we went into it blindly, and with large steps of faith.  It’s done better than we ever anticipated.

 

     “It’s a very satisfying feeling because you can see definitely that the work helps directly.  We always ask them if there’s anything else we can do, and they just say, ‘Give us more orders.’  Their lives are so different from ours, but until you see it, you can’t appreciate what we have.”