by Mary E. Knippel

Colorful, handcrafted gifts at the Freedom Store.

November 2010 — Imagine being able to purchase beautiful handcrafted jewelry, natural beauty products, colorful handbags and unusual gifts close to home — with the bonus of making a global impact in Honduras, Thailand, Cambodia, Peru, Uganda, Australia and South Africa. You can, by shopping at The Freedom Store. Located in the Shoppes at Harbor Village, this unique boutique offers works made by artisans who were the victims of human trafficking, and who have infused each piece with their compelling stories of hope and courage.

“This is our first brick-and-mortar store in the U.S.,” said the Not for Sale Campaign co-founder and Executive Director Mark Wexler; the NFSC also has a store on the Web. “Human trafficking is the second largest crime in the world and all of the goods in the store are part of the idea of empowering people around the globe.” The non-profit NFSC designed the Freedom Store as a business structure to make that idea become reality. The store provides an environment where we can all become activists in the fight to re-abolish slavery. The store is more than a marketplace supplying products people want to buy; it also provides employment opportunities and income for survivors of human trafficking and those vulnerable to exploitation.

The Not for Sale Campaign began three and a half years ago when Coastsider David Batstone discovered human slavery was happening quite close to home, in Berkeley. A professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco, Batstone not only wrote a book entitled Not For Sale, he also established a non-profit organization, along with his former student Mark Wexler, to take action against the devastating human trafficking story he chronicled.

Free2Work, a joint project between the NFSC and the International Labor Rights Forum, is working with the U.S. State Department on technology that will alert consumers to which products were made using various forms of human trafficking and modern slavery. According to Wexler, within the next six months an application will be available for your smart phone, allowing you to simply point the phone at a product to learn about the business practices involved in its creation. The phone will display a “grade” to let you know how the product rates in the “free” marketplace. An F2W “A” rating means workers are treated as partners; an “F” rating indicates workers lack basic human considerations.

“What I do in my community,” Wexler said, “affects what is happening in the rest of the world. Everything we purchase has a supply-chain story. Right now you can shop with confidence at the Freedom Store, and know not only where your purchase was made, but how the workers were treated.” To see how your favorite businesses score on fair trade business practices, visit the Free2Work website.

For those who would like to study in-depth about being a modern-day abolitionist, the NFSC offers two-week intensive trainings several times a year. “The Abolitionist Academy,” Wexler explained, “is a place for folks to drill down and gain a deeper understanding of the world situation and how they can be a change agent.”

Slavery in the 21st century? Unfortunately, human trafficking touches our lives every day and we are unaware. The NFSC vision is to bridge knowledge to action. Here’s your chance to shop locally and dramatically change the lives of others. Visit the Freedom Store at 270 Capistrano Road, Suite 2, Half Moon Bay. You can reach the NFSC at 650-560-9990, or visit the NFSC website to learn more.