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Starting in 1946 when Edna Ruth Byler travelled to Puerto Rico, Mennonite Central Committee's Ten Thousand Villages program has had a consistent mission: Providing vital, fair income to people around the world by selling their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.
Recent actions by the MCC and Ten Thousand Villages governing bodies in Canada and the US have reaffirmed this mission while giving approval for new operating procedures designed to make Ten Thousand Villages better able to grow into a strong program generating income for disadvantaged artisans in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
At meetings held in Winnipeg and Maytown, Pa., the two groups accepted a proposal calling for Ten Thousand Villages to become a separately incorporated nonprofit organization owned by MCC.
Implementation of the proposal will take place if the plan is accepted at the MCC Canada annual meeting in November and the MCC binational meeting set for February 2000 in the US.
This action gives Ten Thousand Villages the ability to set its own personnel policies and salary scales. While retaining the traditional MCC screens for staff who determine direction and planning, the new arrangement will allow the program to hire people, specifically in Ten Thousand Villages stores owned and operated by the organization, who come from other faith backgrounds. All staff will need to be committed to the Ten Thousand Villages' mission statement, affirm the Christian values underlying the mission statement and acknowledge and be comfortable with the MCC peacemaking criteria.
Another important change is in the way Ten Thousand Villages handles financial matters. Ten Thousand Villages will set its own budgets and business plans and be given more freedom to borrow from sources other than MCC. Ten Thousand Villages is to be self-sufficient and will not solicit contributions from donors, other than profits from Ten Thousand Villages stores and from nonconstituent foundations.
"Ten Thousand Villages is remaining a Christian organization," said Ron Mathies, MCC executive director. "The mission and aim of Ten Thousand Villages will be as it has always been, and the motivation is Christ-centred. However, we are building new methods that enable Ten Thousand Villages to continue as a major program of MCC in economic capacity serving in the name of Christ'."
While these aspects are changing, many are not. Ten Thousand Villages remains a part of MCC and will continue to use MCC volunteers. MCC will appoint the majority of the Ten Thousand Villages Board and approve selection of Ten Thousand Villages executive director and the organizational by-laws. Ten Thousand Villages will continue using the MCC "Principles That Guide Our Mission" and the MCC name and logo.
Ten Thousand Villages Canada Director Doug Dirks said, "The artisan will always be the focus of the work we do, and we are pleased that sales continue to increase, and currently stand at a record high for Canada. Our new relationship with MCC will support further improvements in business and the number of artisans we can support." Larry Guengerich, with reports by Martha Burka, Ten Thousand Villages
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