Being the difference

“I tell people that fair trade’s not what I do, it’s who I am,” said Melissa Kendrick, the owner of Sojourns, a fair-trade boutique downtown that’s now heading into its second decade as a locally owned retailer.

Sojourns, which Kendrick opened in 2005, carries art, jewelry, clothing and other items from about 440 cooperatives in 57 countries, including Uganda, Thailand, Guatemala and Mozambique.

Like others in the growing fair-trade movement, Kendrick said she seeks to empower low-income artisans and laborers around the world to earn a living wage.

“It’s my belief that all people should be treated with dignity,” she said.

And in retail and fair trade, Kendrick seems to have found a way to make a living that is demanding but fun.

“People say, ‘I can’t believe you work six days a week.’ I say, ‘I don’t. I go to Sojourns six days a week,’” she said.

The entrepreneur said she believes in fair trade and how smart consumer choices can have a big impact on the world.

Fair trade is a rapidly growing retail sector in the United States, with more than 200 fair-trade stores and many others selling some fair-trade products, Kendrick said.

“It’s grown exponentially in the last 10 years or so,” she said. 

There’s been an increase not only in the number of national fair-trade retailers but in the number of artisans, the quality of the products and the level of public awareness, according to Kendrick. Products are considered fair trade if the producers, often living in developing countries, are paid a fair price for what they create. Sojourns and Trade-Fair Marketplace in Huntsville are the only wholly fair-trade stores in Alabama, she said.

Within Sojourns, items include African sculptures and Vietnamese prints and paintings, as well as baskets from Ghana, bracelets from Nepal, silk scarves from India and handmade greeting cards from the Philippines.

Originally from Hueytown, Kendrick earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University and a master’s in public administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She graduated from UAB in 1993.

She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1995 and worked and traveled for such nonprofits as UNESCO and the International Eco-Tourism Society before returning to Birmingham a decade later to take care of her ailing parents.

Kendrick joined a nonprofit in Alabama but quit after only six months to start her business.

“I wanted to be my own boss, [and] I was tired of boards and nonprofits and fundraising,” she said. “I wanted to do something with a vision to it, a mission. In my work and my travels, I loved seeing indigenous art. While I was working in West Africa, I learned about fair trade from the coconut growers there.”

Kendrick is the only full-time employee at Sojourns, and though she professes to love running the store, she also admits to being a little burned out after 11 years.

Fortunately, the store is now in better shape financially, meaning Kendrick can soon pull back and hire some part-time help, she said.

Kendrick said she has big plans for Sojourns, including expanded hours — taking advantage of greater activity downtown — and, beginning this fall, more products.

“I would also love … to open a global café as an extension of the store, but I’m also looking at opening a second store,” she said. “I may do some fair-trade kiosks in some coffee shops around the state to build awareness and test the markets.”

Fair trade and the ideals driving it may seem a bit unrealistic to some, but any small, positive action can have an effect on the lives of workers in the developing world, Kendrick said, including a consumer’s everyday buying decisions.

“If you buy fair-trade coffee or fair-trade chocolate, which are the two of most-exploited crops in the world, just that would make a huge difference,” she said.

Kendrick said she also is proud of her efforts and those of other fair-trade retailers, including the ones she traveled with recently in India.

“I can’t do everything, but I can do what I do,” she said, offering an example from her recent monthlong trip to India to meet workers who make some of her store’s merchandise.

“Collectively, we come together to buy those products that keep these artisans employed, and I may not be changing the world, but I’m changing the world of that artisan,” Kendrick said. “It all sounds very pie in the sky, but you have to start somewhere.”

Kendrick is also co-owner of Wanderlust Global Imports.

Sojourns is at 2017 Third Ave. N. For more information, call 323-5680 or go to adventureartpeace.com.