Frequently Asked Questions

FairMail offers a positive product that provides a concrete, direct and effective contribution to combatting poverty. FairMail also falls under the category of Fair-Trade products. A claim we want to prove by being transparent about how FairMail works and how the Fair Trade certification works. FairMail and Fair-trade What is the difference between FairMail cards and other cards sold in shops? What is Fair-trade? Is Fairmail also really Fair-Trade? Who checks to see if FairMail complies with the criteria for Fair-Trade? Why are FairMail cards more expensive then other cards? FairMail and the teenage photographers Who are FairMail’s teenage photographers? How do the teenagers benefit from FairMail? Where exactly do the card sale profits go? What do the teenagers earn per year? What do the teenagers spend their money on? What can you buy with such amounts in Peru? When do the teenagers get paid? What about the secondary labour conditions of the teenagers? Are the teens in school? And what are they studying? FairMail and the UN Millennium Goals What is FairMail’s contribution to the UN Millennium Goals? FairMail and the Environment How about FairMail’s environmental policy? Which environmental goals does FairMail state in its environmental year plan? Are FairMail Cards printed on FSC certified paper? FairMail and the numbers Year results FairMail Peru Answers: What is the difference between FairMail cards and other cards sold in shops? Many photos of developing countries are taken by WESTERN photographers, printed in WESTERN countries and sold by WESTERN companies. It is the WEST that is earning the money. Our philosophy is that “the country that provides the beauty in the photos should be the one benefiting.” Through Fairmail, the people who benefit from these products include: the photographers, their family, the Peruvian printing company, the Peruvian mail company, the Peruvian tax institutions as well as FairMail Peru’s native manager. That is Fair-trade according to FairMail! Back to top What is Fair-trade? Fair-trade stands for an equitable way of doing business with developing countries with sincere attention to the following points: respect for humans and the environment, a sustainable business relationship, support in product development and transparency in the trading chain.. Products must be made and traded in a respectful way for people and the environment. This can be executed in different ways. Each individual involved in the trading chain will improve the situation of women and the absence of discrimination on the basis of race, sex or religion. Producers have to assure decent working conditions for their personal and give them the freedom to organize themselves in labour unions. Their activities are safe and the environment and children are not exploited. If children are helping with the production that should not be on a big scale and not have an obligatory character. Besides that children should be going to school and have free time. Producers should receive a “liveable wage”. Producers should be able to make a decent living in their specific circumstances. If they where to work full-time their wage should allow them to buy food, clothing, shelter, business equipment and be able to send their children to school. What exactly the liveable wage is is hard to define and standardize. What you need to make a decent living differs per country and even part of a country. Sustainable Trade Relationship Importers of fair-trade products commit themselves to a enduring trading relationship with the producers. This offers them long term the guarantee of being able to sell. An upfront payment can also help the producers. Provide support with product development and business management Besides the security of a long term business relationship the producers also deserve support and advice. This includes development of their company and their products, in the form of advice, credits or mediation. But for example also by providing information about wishes and expectations of the consumers in the west, which would enable them to better sell their products. Or by finding new entrances to new markets for the products. By providing support where necessary the producer’s organizations become stronger and more independent. The ultimate goal is that producers are empowered to sell their products out side the fair-trade market and to grow further. Transparency in the trade chain In the Fair-trade chain all partners are transparent about their acting and way of doing business. This transparency is important for the reliability of the whole chain. Back to top Is FairMail also really Fair Trade? FairMail can proudly declare to be Fair-trade because it has been recognized as such by the Dutch Association of World Shops (LVVWW). The LVVWW has a very strict set of criteria for non-food products coming from developing countries which want to be sold as “fair-trade in the World Shops. This means that FairMail Cards (as only card supplier from Peru!) is being checked on:

Complying with the most important conventions of the World Labour Organizations (WLO) with respect to exploitation of child labour, forced labour, equal rights and freedom to unionize etc.,

Pay more then a liveable wage to its employees (FairMail pays an average of 85% more then the local liveable wage of 800 soles per month) and providing secondary labour benefits like health insurance for the teenagers and their families.

Offer safe and hygienic working conditions for its employees,

Have an internal environmental policy.

Support producer groups in Peru so they can sell their products better in the west.,

Be transparent about the financial bookkeeping which is checked by the LVVWW every 3 years.

Back to top Who checks to see if FairMail complies with the criteria for Fair-Trade? This checking is done by the Dutch Association of World Shops (LVVWW). FairMail chose for this certification because it has the strictest and best ethically structured procedure (which is reflected in the price) to recognize providers of “non food” Fair-Trade products. There are other certifications schemes including the well known “FairTrade mark” but they only certify agricultural products like cotton, coffee and bananas (and now soccer balls!). Other certifying organizations like theIFAT (International Fair Trade Association) have softer controlling mechanisms of self-inspection. Given all the options the LVVWW sets the strictest guidelines to make sure we are truly Fair Trade. Plus to make sure we carry on complying an inspector actually comes to Peru to check our fair-trade application at the start and every 3 years afterwards. Back to top Why are FairMail cards more expensive then normal cards? FairMail is the Fair-trade banana amongst the world of greeting cards. Just as with fair-trade bananas you pay a bit more for a FairMail card, because besides buying a quality product you are also contributing to creating a better world! FairMail is a company that has higher costs because of its special way of working. FairMail provides free training photography training to the teenagers, which costs a lot of time and money. The same goes for the guidance in their personal development. Besides the end product with FairMail is really about the process. Back to top FairMail and the teenage photographers Who are FairMail’s teenage photographers? All photos on FairMail cards are taken by Peruvian teenagers. The youth FairMail works with lives in relatively poor circumstances. They either live in a boy’s home for ex-street children or they (or their families) earn money by recycling garbage at Trujillo’s garbage dump. At the moment we work with 10 youngsters from Huanchaco and Trujillo in northern Peru. Click here for more information about the teenage photographers of FairMail. Back to top How do the teenagers benefit from FairMail? The benefits of FairMail for the teenagers can be divided into financial and personal development benefits: Financial benefits: As stated on each card next to the photo of the photographer 50% of the profit of the sale of THAT card goes to THAT photographer. This money is deposited once every quarter in the personal education fund of THAT photographer. Besides financing their education they can also use 25% to make improvements to their housing conditions. Additionally we also deposit 40 soles a month (approximately 10 Euros) into their medical insurance fund for them and their direct family to use. And to complete it they receive an hourly wage for packing activities that they can use in any way they wish. Over the whole of 2007 (first complete year of FairMail) the total of these financial benefits amounted to an average of 85% more then the liveable wage in Trujillo, Peru. Personal development benefits : Besides earning money, FairMail provides an important contribution to each teenager’s personal development. From the age of 13 they get the opportunity to work in a unique company where they gain valuable work experience and develop their creativity: - In order for the teenager to gain true work experience we require that they are punctual, motivated and responsible as they would be in any job. This is stated in their participation contract. If the teenagers don’t comply with this, after a few warnings they will be asked to leave FairMail. FairMail chooses to only work with motivated and responsible teenagers who want to go for improving their future. -We offer creative development via our free photography training. From the first day the teenager sees first hand how to use a creative idea to earn money to live by. They learn to see that they don’t necessarily have to do the same work as their parents if this is not where their passion and talent lies. They learn to develop their own personal future path and with the money earned at FairMail they can finance their new educational dream. Back to top Where does the profit of the cards sale go to? FairMail is a company that provides in its own income and does not receive subsidies. Just as with other companies the income is used to cover the company’s costs. In a profitable company (like FairMail) the income is greater then the costs and thus a profit is attained. At FairMail 50% of the profit goes into the personal education funds of the photographers. The other 50% stays in the company and is saved for investments for the present and future. If the financial situation allows it, profit dividend is turned out to the investment shareholders. FairMail has three equal shareholders. These shareholders are the two initiators and a social ethical investor from the Netherlands. Back to top What do the teenagers earn per year? Below you will find an overview of the earnings made by the teenage photographers over the the period januari 2008 untill januari 2009. Two important comments have to be made though beforehand: 1) First that these are not fixed incomes, but incomes differ every quarter. This is because the income depends on the profit made by FairMail, of which the teenagers receive 50%. 2) Secondly that there are big differences per photographer. On the one hand this is because some photographers have more cards bought than other teenagers. This form of competition is something we encourage because it motivates the teenagers to pay extra attention during the photography lessons and to take more extra photo’s with their cameras away from class. The differences also exist because some of the teenagers have already participated in FairMail since the beginning of 2008, whilst others only joined FairMail during 2008 and are still going through an earlier learning process. Also unfortunately during 2008 two photographers left FairMail (Ivan and Miguel) because they both didn`t want to continue with school (and thus with FairMail).

Income	Educationfund	Health care fund	Wage fund	TOTAL	TOTAL
2008-2009	soles	soles	soles	soles	euro’s
David	7.908	480	353	8.741	2.185
Cinthia	7.526	480	417	8.423	2.106
Luis	7.188	480	225	7.893	1.973
Maria Flor	4.183	480	449	5.112	1.278
Rosita	3.583	480	546	4.609	1.152
Mariluz	3.257	480	482	4.219	1.055
Elmer	2.689	480	289	3.458	864
Juan Carlos	2.719	480	96	3.295	824
Roberto	318	160	161	639	160
Yuli	6	160	193	359	90
Ivan	331	0	0	331	83
TOTAL	39.708	4.160	3.210	47.078	11.770

(1 sol is 0,25 eurocent on the 1st of July 2008) Back to top What do the teenagers spend their money on? The largest percentage of their income is spent on education with 50% of the profit going to the education of the teenager. This money the kids can spend as they wish in the education field from the paying of tuition fees (secondary school) to additional courses (like computer or cooking courses) to job training. But they can also choose to spend it on other things they need for school like glasses, shoes, back packs, books etc. 25% of the profit the teenagers can spent on making improvements to their housing situation like finally buying their own bed or fixing the roof. The money from the health insurance fund can be spent if they or someone in their direct family turns ill. The benefit of this “non formal” insurance is that it can also be used at private clinics or pharmacies where some services and medicines are available which are missing in public hospitals. The money they earn with packing the cards they can spend however they want. Mostly they spend it on music and clothes. Just like teenagers elsewhere in the world! Back to top What can you buy with such amounts in a country like Peru? The official minimum wage in Peru is 125 euro per month (550 sol), but a lot of people have to manage with less. On the garbage dump their parents only earn a meagre 75 euros per month and they as children earn even less. According to the criteria for Fair-trade made by the Dutch Association for World Shops the minimum liveable wage in Trujillo, Peru is 800 soles per month (200 euros). In general you could say that in most western countries things are approximately 10 times more expensive than as in Peru. So according to this the liveable wage in a country like the UK would be 2000 euro. In Peru for 1,25 euro you can already get a decent meal. A pair of school shoes costs 10 euro, a backpack 5 euro, glasses for 30 euro and a computer course for 50 euro etc. For the coming 2,5 years FairMail has budgeted to earn 15.000 euros in education money for a total of 30 teenagers. Back to top When do the teenagers get paid? Once every quarter FairMail calculates what everyone has earned. The teenagers (and their parents) receive a clear financial overview and they can ask questions about it. In this overview it also states how much money is in their education and medical funds. This indicates how much money they can still take out of their FairMail account to pay for educational or medical costs. The funds are personal and per photographers. If you have sold a high number of cards then you will have earned more money then when you have only sold a few cards. Also some teenagers save more then others. David for example has saved up almost all of his money to go to university later on, while Cinthia spends most of her earning at once . They can decide on that themselves. FairMail just keeps track of things for them and an overview four times a year. When the teenager wants to buy something they must go through FairMail. This is for a couple of reasons including the logistics that none of them have their own bank accounts. But most importantly we feel it’s key that we check what they spend their saved money on hence we require that they hand in the receipts for all there purchases. In general this is never a problem due to the mentality of our teenagers but this method insures that the money really goes towards education and housing rather than beer for their father or buying candy. FairMail is not meant for that. Back to top What are the secondary labour conditions for the teenagers? As soon as the teenager has his or her first greeting card they receive a “FairMail participation contract”. The teenager and there parents have to read it. In the contract it states that the teenager will: 1) Participate actively in FairMail’s activities. 2) Give advance notice if he or she can’t make it. 3) Give the copyright of his or her photo’s to Fairmail in order to print greeting cards 4) Go to school. Fairmail in return promises to: 1) Train the teenager in photography for free and provide the necessary material to take pictures like a digital camera and batteries. 2) Have an actualized and accessible bookkeeping of the different personal funds (education, health insurance and wage funds) 3) Deposit 50% of the profit per card in the education fund of the photographer who took the picture. 4) Pay wages, telephone and transportation costs on a weekly basis. 5) Save 40 soles (10 euros) per month in each photographer’s health insurance fund which the teenager and his or her direct family can use if they get sick. The money can also be spent outside of the restricted government hospitals. Back to top What are the teenagers currently studying? David – 17 years old – is in the last grade of high school. He wants to study photography and psychology. Cinthia – 17 years old – finished high school and is starting to study tourism. Rosita – 17 years old – finished her high school and hopes to start the police academy soon. Luis – 15 years old – is in high school now and at the same time studying to be a cook and English. Marie Luz – 17 years old – is in the for-last year of high school. She wants to become an accountant after that. Maria Flor – 17 years old – is in the last class of high school. She does not know yet what she wants to study afterwards. Elmer – 14 years old – is still in high school and wants to become an accountant a well. Juan Carlos – 13 years old – is still in high school and wants to become a singing missionary! Ivan – 15 years old – stopped going to school and thus automatically stopped with FairMail. He used his savings to buy a motor taxi to be able to earn money for him and his family. Back to top FairMail and the UN Millennium Goals What does FairMail contribute to the UN Millennium Goals? The most important UN Millennium Goals FairMail contributes to are: Fighting hunger and extreme poverty: -FairMail invests in the wellbeing and future of (in the coming 5 years 25 to 35) teenagers whom are deprived of normal developing opportunities due to their difficult living circumstances (former street children and children who used to work on the garbage dump). -FairMail offers medical insurance to the teenagers and their families which protects them against illnesses. -FairMail finances the education the teenagers need with an estimated 15.000 euro (50% of FairMail Peru’s profit) in the first 3.5 years of Fairmail Peru. -FairMail provides guidance with the teenagers personal development plans. Development of “Global Partnerships” FairMail develops global partnerships through its international trade thus spreading its message of ”local beauty for local development” over the whole world. The FairMail card raises consciousness amongst buyers about the importance of thinking global and acting local, for example by buying Fair-trade products. Back to top FairMail and the Environment How about FairMail’s environmental policy? Since January 2008 FairMail has an internal environmental policy and a yearly environmental plan. Once a year FairMail reports the results of the environmental plan for that year. This report is public and can be requested. FairMail believes that besides the People and Profit also the Planet should benefit from FairMail’s activities. And we like to be transparent about that. In the office this is notable in little things like switching from paper to email with our newsletters, the solo use of rechargeable batteries, recycling ink cartridges, “greening” of our airplane tickets with Atmosfair, paying our workers to come to work with public transport and using recycled paper around the office, On a higher level FairMail tries to support the use of environmentally friendly techniques in the Peruvian printing industry. A development which is just recently getting off the ground. But things are already moving in the right direction. Thanks to FairMail’s demand FSC certified paper is now available at our printer in Trujillo, Peru. Other local companies can now start to also make use of this service. The next step is to introduce soy based ink in Peru. That would be a little revolution FairMail would like to fight for. Back to top Which environmental goals does FairMail state in its environmental year plan? The main goal for 2008 for FairMail is to print its cards on FSC certified paper (see next question). This goal has already been realized since Aril 2008 with the printing of FairMail envelopes on FSC certified paper. From May 2008 onwards our new greeting cards will also be printed on this paper. In 2009 FairMail aims to print its cards in Peru with soy based ink and without varnish. Also we hope to start an investigation on the environmental impact of the transportation of our cards. So we can compensate for this impact with sowing trees. Back to top Are FairMail Cards printed on FSC certified paper? Yes, since April of 2008 they are. Since then our printer in Trujillo Peru has FSC paper available for the printing of our cards and envelopes. This garanties that the trees used to make the paper FairMail Cards are printed on are grown in responsibly managed forests. This is controlled by certifying bodies which operate on basis of the criteria established by the Forest Stewardship Council (see www.fsc.org). Back to top FairMail and the numbers Year results FairMail Peru 2007

INCOME 2007	SOLES	EUROS
Turn over	63.683	15284
COSTS	SOLES	EUROS
printing costs	6000	1440
packaging material	598	144
office and administration costs	1692	406
taxes	572	137
transportation teenagers	1031	247
wage teenagers	806	193
insurance teenagers	879	211
food teenagers	376	90
wage managers	0	0
transportation costs	8879	2131
Promotional costs	548	132
Depriciation	3191	766
TOTAL COSTS	26.257	6302
PROFIT	37426	8982
50% of profit for education money teenagers	18.713	4491

(1 sol is 0,24 eurocent on 1st of February 2008) Back to top