On the occasion of the World Fair Trade Day, IFAIR will spread the message all day at Thumb Plaza in Pudong as well as selling embroidery by Qiang minority women from Sichuan Province.

When it comes to helping the poor, many people think about charity donations, international economic assistance, major agriculture, water and other projects.

Some people travel to developing countries to help with their own labor and expertise.

In China, many still think first about donations - cash, clothing, equipment.

There's another, far better way to help the poor - empowering them by buying their "fair trade" products - at a fair price to the producers.

Fair trade products cost about the same as other products, but much more of the ticket price goes to producers themselves, helping them improve their lives.

These products are also green, environmentally and socially sustainable.

The slogan is "Trade, Not Aid."

Fair trade is a social movement that works with marginalized producers and workers to help them move toward economic self-sufficiency and stability.

Middlemen and their costs are eliminated as much as possible.

Common fair trade products are coffee, cocoa, tea, sugar, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fruit, chocolate, flowers and handicrafts.

Fair trade first appeared in Europe in the 1940s to develop fair trade supply chains in developing countries.

It's very new in China. Just a few overseas-invested fair trade organizations help disadvantaged producers in remote areas; the work is mostly handicrafts. So far there are no Chinese mainland-owned fair trade companies.

There is, however, an umbrella fair trade organization, IFAIR China Fair Trade Center, which was set up last August.

It helps find sales opportunities within China and abroad for disadvantaged workers while promoting fair trade.

So far, seven associations of poor handicraft workers have agreed to work with IFAIR; they are in Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guizhou provinces.

Saturday is the eighth World Fair Trade Day since it began in 2002.

IFAIR will spread the message all day on Saturday at Thumb Plaza in Pudong.

A fair trade market on Sunday will sell embroidery by Qiang minority women from Sichuan Province.

Their community in Aba Prefecture was severely damaged by the earthquake on May 12 last year.

Helping disadvantage people make money selling their products is better than giving them a handout.

The spirit is the same as teaching a man how to fish, instead of giving him a fish.

One of the first fair trade companies in China is Shokay International, a yak wool products company headed by CEOs Carrol Chyau and Marie Sue, both Harvard graduates. Chyau is from Hong Kong and Su is from Taiwan.

While working in a charity project in the Tibet Autonomous Region in January 2006, they realized they could help poor herdsmen sell their yak wool.

The herdsmen's Heimahe Village was one of the poorest in China.

The local government had tried to help Tibetans and given them free shops to operate on tourist streets. But Most sold their shops to others, since they didn't know about business or shopkeeping. They did know a lot about herding and yaks, however.

Chyau and Sue decided to purchase yak wool directly from the herdsmen at a relatively high price and sell the yak wool product after processing by handy housewives in Chongming Island (County) in Shanghai.

The plan, already underway, increases herdsmen's income and personal livelihood in the short term and over time means they can invest in their communities.

The plan won first place in the Harvard Business School's Business Plan Competition, with a cash prize of US$15,000.

They used the money to launch the company and started purchasing wool at twice the market price, with help from the local government.

To process the wool, they went to older housewives in Chongming who hadn't forgotten the domestic arts, including knitting.