As a single mother with more on her plate than just her son, political science senior Charis Elliott continues to be active in the community by running a nonprofit organization advocating fair trade.
“I have a long history of activism and seeing what works and what doesn’t work,” Elliott said. “And with this we are trying to find a practical solution for poverty.”
Elliott grew up living a country lifestyle in San Angelo, Texas. While in school, she said she noticed the diversity of the population and began to appreciate the less fortunate members of the community.
“I went to school with and saw the diversity between the children of migrant workers and with children whose parents owned everything,” she said. “I got exposed to these extremes. That was the situation that contributed to me wanting to do this.”
Elliott has been involved in activism since her teen years. In 2007, in the wake of the tsunami that devastated Indonesia, Elliott went as the fair trade expert for Phoenix to try to help set up a fair trade marketplace for the indigenous people. There she first had the idea to start Las Otras Hermanas.
“LOH came from the idea of a need for fair trade clothing that is both stylish and organic,” she said. “We have programs that teach women to build skills and be able to provide themselves with a sustainable income.”
Fair trade is a social and market-based movement that works to aide producers in developing countries by setting up a market system for them to sell their products at a price high enough to allow them to live.
LOH is a nonprofit organization that allows people to buy fair trade products, where 100 percent of the profit goes back to the people who produce the products. LOH sells these products at Fair Trade Café in Civic Space Park in downtown Phoenix.
“What Charis is doing is really unique,” said LOH intern and sustainability sophomore Kim Pearson. “She has created LOH to work in solidarity with women and instead of handing them a solution, they work one-on-one to create a solution.”
Solidarity, respect, dignity and transparency are key in creating a foundation of change, Elliott said, which is why she thinks she has been successful.
Elliott frequently travels to Juarez, Mexico to meet and build a relationship with the women who produce some of the products her store sells.
“The people of Juarez look at me different,” she said. “They see me as a woman, like them, not just some girl wanting to come in and work with them.”
In the future, Elliott said she wants to branch out the LOH Boutique to have its own fair trade clothing line and set up a fair trade partnership in Peru.
“Charis is an incredibly strong person to have been able to start this and keep it growing and expanding,” said friend and fellow boutique volunteer Kelly McCarty, a graduate student in the Masters of Social Justice and Human Rights program. “I really don’t know how she does it all. I think she’s incredible.”
Elliott said to start and keep LOH running has been a giant undertaking with plenty of sacrifices.
“I’ve done this for free for the past two years,” she said. “I’ve had to work 16 to 18 hour days, sacrifice time with my son, sacrifice my relationships and sacrifice what little money I have… But aside from being a mom, this is the most important, not to mention the most difficult, thing I have ever done.”
Elliott said she proposes a challenge to the Phoenix community to help make a difference in a new way.
“I am challenging everyone to get out of their boring lifestyle,” she said. “Can you do something different? Can you change and improve people’s lives at the same tim
