Amanda Judge Interview (Part One)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part One)

by Eleanor

This is the first of a 5 part interview with Amanda Judge, Founder of the Faire Collection.

This July, four other interns and I had the opportunity to interview Amanda Judge, founder of the Faire Collection via Skype. The Faire Collection (formerly known as the Andean Collection) is a fair trade line of jewelry and accessories founded in 2008. The Faire Collection’s first workshops were located in Ecuador, but they have since expanded into Peru, Swaziland, and most recently into Vietnam.

Amanda Judge wears one of the
 Faire Collection's own creations. 

The Faire Collection developed out of Amanda’s field research for her Master’s thesis on poverty reduction strategies in rural South America. Amanda’s goal was to devise a “sustainable project that an organization could do when they went into communities in Ecuador.” “Through all of that research what I realized the best project for someone to do would be to work with the women as they are providing secondary income for the households.” However instead of just writing her thesis on her discoveries, Amanda decided to “go ahead and really do the project that I was proposing in my paper.”

The Faire Collection, now established for five years, has “tremendously” changed the lives of its artisans: “In general when I first met the artisans they were very much living below the poverty rate and struggling to feed their families. At this point they are all contributing members of middle class society. They drive cars, they have TVs, [and] they have finished homes. It’s been an incredible change. Their incomes have increased about tenfold.” As these improvements continue and the women often become the primary wage earner, Amanda says the “men are really supportive of the women in their role.”

Amanda is “very involved in the artisans’ lives” and visits Ecuador, the site of the first workshop and home to the largest of the Faire Collection’s current operations, two to five times a year. Ecuador has a “staff of five on the ground that communicate daily with the artisans,” which number 108 around the country. There are “limited staff on the ground” in Peru, Swaziland, and Vietnam, but the Faire Collection is looking ahead with their continued expansion.

Hi! I’m Eleanor and I am a rising high school junior. I have two cats, I love drinking tea, and I’m obsessed with all the jewelry on Shopping for a Change (too bad I can’t afford it all). Interning with Shopping for a Change is an amazing experience filled with inspiring stories, great opportunities, and lots and lots of cheese provided by the founder Stacey. Cheers!