LOCAL resident Kathleen Ticehurst is encouraging Mandurah to Go Fair for Christmas.
Ms Ticehurst has been importing fair trade goods for 16 years with social enterprise CAMACrafts and has sold these items at the local Christmas fair since it began three years ago.
Having just returned from Laos with new craft items, she said the fair was a chance to help people living in third world conditions.
“The whole idea of fair trade is to help people who don’t have anything,” she said.
“It gives them a form of income and they have quite high quality control.”
The annual fair is facilitated by the Mandurah Oxfam Group brings together about 20 groups, mostly from the Peel region, selling a range of handcrafted homewares, accessories, toys, jewellery and more, as well as chocolates, coffees, teas, and spices.
Ms Ticehurst’s work in particular helps women in Laos who make everything from table runners and pillow cases to bags and bibs.
“We started craft works to help women in refuge camps,” she said.
“Now we have formed a cooperative which fives women the chance to gain a cash income, allows them to use traditional handcrafts and gives them dignity.
“The idea is the train up the people to take up the business so they can run it by themselves.”
Go Fair for Christmas is at the Bortolo Pavillion on Sunday from 10am-3pm.