Let go of the reins and go to Nepal #FairTradeStories

Fair Trade had sparked my curiosity at the time, but it remained dormant for a while. Social Enterprises were always my great passion; Fair Trade simply reappeared in my life as a kind of serendipity.

In 2015, I traveled to the other side of the continent with two very specific goals in mind: to learn everything I could about social enterprise and to explore the Himalayas. The idea of spending three months in Bangladesh was to achieve the first goal, and returning to Argentina from India was because I wanted to achieve the second.

While in Dhaka, I quickly realized I wouldn't successfully achieve the first objective, so I decided to change my plans on the fly. Here's a little bit about why . While in Bangladesh, my friend Marisela invited me to join a project she was participating in, which would take place in Nepal. There, a group of rural women would be training to become independent and learn how to sell lamps, lanterns, and solar home systems to bring light to their communities. That group of women were mountain lions who showed me that with the right tools and a good dose of empowerment, anything is possible.

There I was, on the balcony of the hotel on the outskirts of Kathmandu where the training had taken place, with a satisfying sense of accomplishment and the uncertainty that was beginning to creep in. In a few days, I would be returning to New Delhi, with a return ticket scheduled for about two months and little certainty about how the next few months would unfold. With a warm cup of tea, a view of the snow-capped mountain range in the background, and an intermittent internet connection, I set out to search for organizations that worked with social enterprises in India.

“I don't know what I'm going to do in India, but at least I know how to get around. Delhi is my second home,” I told myself. My mind fluctuated between the anxiety of uncertainty, the thirst for learning, and the comfort of knowing I would be returning to a place that already felt like home. This time, I didn't want to study; I'd had the opportunity to do so with a scholarship to one of the best business universities in France, and I hadn't had enough experience fully internalizing what I'd learned about Social Enterprises. I wanted to immerse myself in the field, speak firsthand with those who created companies born to solve social problems, learn how communities were transformed by their intervention, and how that concept, which sounded utopian from textbooks, worked.

While browsing the internet, I came across an organization that brought together more than 250 Fair Trade-certified organizations, many of them Social Enterprises. I immediately contacted them, told them about my intention to get to know some of the Social Enterprises in their network in depth, and we agreed to meet when I arrived in New Delhi. If there's one thing I learned while living in India, it's how important it is for the first meetings to be face-to-face. More than in any other country, in India, first impressions are fundamental in defining the future of a relationship or partnership. Intuition plays a key role, and sensing a person's energy before moving forward on projects is a common language, from the most formal to the most informal settings.

The first thing I did when I arrived in Delhi was go to the organization's office. A little nervous, I waited for Mallikarjuna, the network's president, to arrive. When he arrived, he shook my hand and, with a big smile, asked me what had brought me there. "I lived in Delhi for a year before, I come from Bangladesh and Nepal, I was able to study Social Enterprises in France, I've been training in the field for a couple of years, and I want to learn more about how Social Enterprises work and what they're like in the field. I don't know much about Fair Trade, but I find it interesting," I told him.

“Excellent! We specialize in Fair Trade. We have a network of organizations, many of which are Social Enterprises. We don't know much about the theories of Social Enterprises, but we do know about Fair Trade,” he tells me. I start asking him a thousand questions about Fair Trade, about the network of organizations, how they generate their impact, until he stops me: “Wait a second…” he says.

A brief silence revealed her enthusiasm for learning more from both sides and gave way to the idea that had been floating around in her head to take shape: "Why don't we do some research together where you can analyze how Fair Trade certification adds value to social enterprises? It would be very helpful for us because we haven't done an analysis of that kind. We could take advantage of this opportunity to map some of their needs, and we would provide you with access to absolutely everything you need to conduct the research. We could cover your travel costs to visit the organizations, and in return, we would ask you to help us with some communication issues we still need to define. What do you think?"

A tingle of excitement at the tip of my nose told me the proposal was almost as exciting as it was surreal. Travel, read a lot, research, analyze, write, and spend time with people? What he was proposing was everything I wanted to do but hadn't been able to figure out how to do it. "We have a deal!" I said. We shook hands, smiling, and I promised to return with a work plan the following week. I descended those four flights of stairs with so much happiness I couldn't fit into a single smile. I walked the 12 blocks home, traveling through my thoughts and creating imaginary synoptic charts of how this investigation would begin. I knew what was coming was good, but little did I know how much what was about to begin would impact my personal and professional life.

Fair Trade not only began to give me a new perspective on what I thought I knew, but it also showed me that things can be done differently and that sometimes, by letting go of the reins, we can find new paths that offer us much to learn.

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