Starfish Community

My church is considering setting up a small "store" where we sell goods that are created in developing countries. I have seen a number of small displays of goods from a small village here or there. I am looking to see what types of options are available for that sort of thing.

I have seen it where all the goods were from one location, and I have seen one or two displays where the goods were from multiple locations. Does anyone have opinions on which approach is better?

This post was edited by a moderator February 2010.

Tim, what is the primary goal for this store? Is it to bring awareness to the church about the country where the goods are from? To raise money that goes back to the country?

That is a tough question. My suspicion is that it will end up being thought of as something that brings in money for them, but I am not expecting that they are not going to sell a lot of items. It is a small-ish church.

I am doing the research to see what is out there, and others will be doing the actual running of the "store." So I am not completely sure what they will want to accomplish with it. But I suspect that they will end up having it as a display to remind folks in the church about people around the world. Some of the people will take it as a challenge to try to sell a lot of things in the store, but most of the people will have it as a visual reminder of other Christians around the world.

I think they will be best served by having a number of different types of items, probably from a few different countries. But I am not sure about that.

Tim,

I think its a great idea for churches to support micro-small business development among the unreached peoples. I wish more would think out of this box. If they wanted it to be a resource to educate the church on upg work...I can definitely help you develop that. I also have a network of these businesses we can tie into as well as inventory already located stateside for wholesale.
It would accomplish a few things for your church.
1. an educational piece on UPG work 2. a means of earning profit to help support mission/projects within your church body 3. supporting the businesses which you are buying from/grass roots community development

Please feel free to contact me as you move forward.

Great Idea!! Would like to be updated on the progress of this idea. Will consider to source some products from West Africa and/or develop such idea here.

I too am interested in hearing about such ideas and what various churches, etc. are trying.

I have asked the questions posed here on this list, "What is the goal of the 'store'" to the people in my church. They are kicking it around a bit, and I will see what they decide.

I also told them that they need to find an "owner" to the store. I travel too much to handle the logistics of re-stocking and all. I will probably continue to be an intermediary with that person and the various communities, and I will also try to post feedback to this list as we go on.

Tim,

I don't have many suggestions from a business stand point but from a technical stand point s this going to be done online? You may already be aware of Zen Cart. It is a free (open source), easy to use e-commerce software. A great tool for churches and other non-profit groups to use to manage their online business ventures.

Good luck and best wishes!

I work in helping the poor to start up businesses, so that they can start to dig themselves out of the poverty trap. My organisation - DBSP - works in South Africa, and in Kenya, and we have launched our training interventions in Mali, Niger, Sudan and Armenia. In almost all these countries we have trained people whose interest and skill lies in the production of locally-made crafts and ethnic products. It would be a pleasure for me to keep my eyes` and ears open to see who does what and to keep you posted as to what is available from these various countries. Keep me posted.

I noticed that this was THE most popular posting on the site... which tracks with my personal experience that this general idea seems to resonate with people. But I'm not entirely sure that I've seen many sustainable programs that really allow this to work beyond a handful of examples. The local programs/businesses via the DBSP do make sense...

Question: What are the fundamental challenges that keep this general idea of re-selling goods in other countries that produced in developing countries as small businesses?

Question: Are there terms to be used to clearly delineate the differences between goods produced to be sold locally... vs... humanitarian-ish programs where these goods are sold to richer audiences around the world?

The high "view" count on this posting seems to lead me to believe that people are interested in this topic. :-)

-MW