About

Our Mission

To empower and promote the value of exploited, displaced, and impoverished people groups of the world through the development of sustainable economic opportunities.

Our Model 

Yobel contributes to product development, and expands global marketplaces utilizing fair trade principles while partnering with organizations committed to ethical and sustainable production processes. Yobel is committed to educating consumers locally within the Minority World about the power of our purchases in the role of promoting freedom and dignity globally. Our hope is that through awareness and equitable trade, marginalized people of the world may be offered the hope of freedom and abundant life.  

Our History

In 2003, Sarah visited the Canaan Farm community in Uganda made up of individuals displaced by the civil war in the north. After this experience and seeing their need for additional income and a fresh start, Sarah was motivated to care for her neighbor. Meanwhile, Donavan traveled overseas with a social justice school and was convinced of the power of bringing fair earning potential to women in the developing world. In 2008, the two met for coffee and decided to invest their own savings into their first micro-grant to a group of women living on Canaan Farm. This tiny grant provided the start-up capital for the production of bamboo fair trade jewelry by hiring a jewelry trainer and buying basic materials and tools. Eight months later, a few high school students purchased a tent for a local farmers’ market. The Ugandan bamboo, along with another organization's paper bead jewelry, provided Yobel Market with its first product lines. After another year and a half and the inclusion of two more justice organizations, Yobel Market grew to the point of necessitating a permanent space. Against much well-meaning advice, Yobel Market opened a brick and mortar store.Throughout this time Yobel Market also saw the need in the developing world for basic business education and financial management training to empower individuals to start businesses serving their own communities. They created a curriculum to train entrepreneurs in essential business practices and savings principles, reducing dependence on international aid. From the beginning this has been a volunteer-run, community-based organization. Without the assistance of many talented volunteers and the hard work of our amazing artisans globally, this enterprise would never have survived. Yobel Market now partners with nonprofits and social entrepreneurs all over the world, including here in the United States, who produce fairly-traded and ethically-made products. These items directly affect lives by empowering people through business while providing freedom from exploitative labor. Yobel Market loves its calling to daily inspire awareness and promote justice throughout our community and world!

Our Dream

  • To see people genuinely freed from the poverty and slavery of their situation and spirit.
  • To continue to develop a line of fashionably relevant, ethically traded goods for modern markets.
  • To expose our friends and neighbors to justice issues through storytelling and travel.
  • To see artisans running successful autonomous businesses.
  • To see our artisan friends' products in boutiques, coffee shops and bookstores across the world.
  • To assist the American consumer in becoming conscious of the people behind their products.

 

We Believe

  1. “That the poor are not poor because they lack material goods,’ but because they are excluded from systems of justice.” - Michael of Poverty Inc
  2. That business is one of the most efficacious ways to end poverty worldwide.
  3. That the global poor must be afforded access to free markets in order to flourish. 
  4. That the people and production process behind a product should be valued more than the product itself.
  5. That aid has crippled developing economies and created corruption, whereas business development and job creation has led to poverty alleviation and the emergent middle class. 
  6. That fair trade in and of itself will not solve the world’s poverty problem, but that equitable business just might. 
  7. That beauty, craftsmanship, heritage, and design are a necessary component of the human experience. 
  8. That we are called to pay the worker their wages and break loose the yoke of oppression. 
  9. That each person is created uniquely with a specific purpose to fulfill on this earth. It is our joy to affirm and call forth one another’s destinies. 
  10. We are not “For Profit,” we are "For Purpose." We are an ethical business committed to doing good - not only with our profits, but in every interaction we make.
  11. That a life of wholeness is possible for both the artisans we partner with and the customers who support them.
  12. That, to the extent that the battle for freedom for all is full of heartache and and hard work, it is also full of deep joy and substance. 
  13. That small change = big change; one life adjusted is worth every effort.
  14. In pouring ourselves out every day, over and over again, because we are poured into every day, over and over again. 

Still have questions? See if we answer it in our Frequently Asked Questions. If not, shoot us an email at emily@shopyobel.com