From a young age Sivanildo knew hardship. Now life has taken a different turn for Sivanildo thanks to a World Vision fair trade project.

Growing up in rural Brazil, there was rarely enough food for Sivanildo and his nine siblings. As the families’ finances went from bad to worse, Sivanildo’s father said good bye to his children and travelled to Sao Paulo in search of better job opportunities.

Like so many migrants to the city, he quickly found the promises of the city were not fulfilled in the everyday reality of life there. Although he saved hard for his family, some months he was unable to send any money home. Sivanildo watched his father leave for the city and return home dejected a total of three times during his childhood.

With an eye to his future, Sivanildo’s parents encouraged him to go to school. Sivanildo says attending school gave him a sense of joy that he hadn’t ever experienced before. He studied hard, hoping that his studies would enable him to have a different life to that of his father’s.

After leaving school, Sivanildo looked for employment opportunities in his village, but found few. So he began working as a daily labourer on a plantation for a US$1 a day. Drought is common in this part of Brazil and this meant that even plantation work was hard to come by, so Sivanildo would go for months with no employment.

By the time he reached 18, Sivanildo felt he had run out of options in his village and decided to try his luck in Sao Paulo.

Just before he packed up to go, World Vision began a fair trade project in the district training young people in woodworking and forming a cooperative to market their products. Sivanildo saw this as his chance to learn a skill he could use to earn a decent income, so decided to stay in his village to take part in the training. As an added bonus for Sivanildo, World Vision required him to reenrol in school to complete his formal education!

Through World Vision, Sivanildo and a number of other young people are learning the skills they need to produce quality wooden products for fair trade stores. They are also instructed in life skills, marketing and book-keeping so their cooperative will be successful in the long term.

The photo frames, boxes and notebooks produced by the cooperative are made with recycled or sustainable woods and are sold to fair trade stores through long term contracts.

Earning a stable income through fair trade, Sivanildo can be sure he won’t have to follow in the footsteps of his father.