Back in 1985, the people of Vietnam and Laos were experiencing extreme poverty due to the fallout of the Vietnam War. In the aftermath of the nearly twenty-year conflict, the U.S. enacted a trade embargo on the region. Without any investment to rebuild, families were struggling.

But Canada had not signed on to the U.S. embargo, so Hermann Neff, the first Director of Self Help Crafts Canada, jumped on a plane to visit makers in those two countries. Because of Neff’s leadership, our fair trade organization became the first in North America to import handicrafts from Vietnam and Laos.

We’re not called Self Help Crafts anymore, but Ten Thousand Villages still imports from Vietnam and Laos. And while that may prove that some things haven’t changed since our humble beginnings in the mid-1940s, Neff’s story is just one of hundreds that have shaped our past – and our future.

In the coming weeks Ten Thousand Villages is celebrating its 70^th birthday and we’re taking time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Here are a few surprising highlights from our archives.

It started with a dream…and the trunk of a car.

In 1946 Edna Ruth Byler and her husband travelled to Puerto Rico with MCC and bought some hand-embroidered linens from struggling craftswomen there. When she returned, she sold them to friends and neighbours. Soon she was branching out to wooden bowls and figures from Haiti, needlework from the West Bank and travelling from state to state, selling whatever she could fit into the back of her car.

Ten Thousand Villages Canada was born in Saskatchewan.

By 1965, what was then known as the Overseas Needlework and Crafts Project in the U.S., had spread into new markets – including Canada. Irma Blazer became our country’s first volunteer. She ordered products from the American list and hit the road to sell them within Saskatchewan and beyond.

We’ve had three names.

Overseas Needlework and Crafts Project became Self Help Crafts of the World (the Canadian arm was Self Help Crafts Canada) in 1970. By 1996, realizing that Self Help Crafts was too confusing – were we selling fair trade, handcrafted wares or dealing in self-improvement items? – it was time to find a new name. The first choice, “Far Fetched Crafts,” got the thumbs down. The winner? Ten Thousand Villages, based on a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “I have… repeated times without number that India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its 700,000 villages.”

We’re still changing with the times.

Walk into our refreshed retail store on Bloor Street in Toronto, and you won’t see many signs of our humble beginnings. Lots of things remain – our stores still rely on dedicated volunteers, and many of our products come from groups we’ve been buying from for decades. But if you know a little bit of history, it’s clear how far we’ve come. The days when wooden bowls and embroidery were stashed in house basements and spare bedrooms, ready to be sold, are long gone. More than ever, we’re working together with makers to find fresh, simple, and fun personal accessories and home decor with meaning; products that support good, stable jobs for makers around the world. 

Even so, Edna Ruth Byler’s legacy of hope and compassion lives on today as Ten Thousand Villages moves into a new era. More than ever, we’re working together with makers to find fresh personal accessories and home decor rooted in traditional handicrafts that connect with North American customers. But we still focus on finding products that give makers what they need most: the means to build a better future.

“That’s our history: One woman saw a need and thought she could do something about it,” says Holly deGraaf, Director, Retail Operations and Public Relations and Interim General Manager. “When we look to the future, it’s always with our eye on how we can make even more opportunities for our artisans.”

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Thanks to Doug Dirks for helping us with some of the details in this piece.