2010.04.10: Fiji RPCV Stephanie Odegard is not only known around the world for her carpet designs, but for her environmentally sustainable practices
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2010.04.10: Fiji RPCV Stephanie Odegard is not only known around the world for her carpet designs, but for her environmentally sustainable practices
Fiji RPCV Stephanie Odegard is not only known around the world for her carpet designs, but for her environmentally sustainable practices
"I went to Fiji and learned while I was there about traditional crafts," she said in a telephone interview. "I ended up fulfilling my Peace Corps duties by assisting Fiji in filling a market for their traditional crafts. I found that by putting cash in the hands of the traditional workers, we would help provide for their children's futures and we helped them achieve sustainability."
Fiji RPCV Stephanie Odegard is not only known around the world for her carpet designs, but for her environmentally sustainable practices
Designer weaving a better world
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
Published: 4/10/2010 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 4/10/2010 5:17 AM
Stephanie Odegard is not only known around the world for her carpet designs, but for her environmentally sustainable practices.
Odegard and her company, Odegard Inc., have changed the way countries produce their artisan items and how they treat their workers. Her interest began when she served in the Peace Corps in the late 1970s.
"I went to Fiji and learned while I was there about traditional crafts," she said in a telephone interview. "I ended up fulfilling my Peace Corps duties by assisting Fiji in filling a market for their traditional crafts. I found that by putting cash in the hands of the traditional workers, we would help provide for their children's futures and we helped them achieve sustainability."
Odegard's project was so successful that she stayed to work for the United Nations as a marketing consultant, then worked toward the same goal in Jamaica and Nepal with workers there. In Nepal, she discovered methods of rug making that she imported to the United States.
"Stephanie Odegard is leading the way for socially conscious carpet manufacturing today," said Brian Hughes of SR Hughes, which is co-sponsoring her April 15 talk at the Philbrook Museum. "She helped revive Nepal's carpet industry in the late 1980s by commissioning and importing Himalayan wool rugs, and she continues to be a force today in helping developing countries promote and preserve their traditional artisan crafts."
Today, consumers are more interested in the origin of their products.
"What we're
trying to do is make the consumer aware of the importance of asking what they're buying and who made it and how it was made," Odegard said. "And to make sure they're buying it from reputable people. We wanted to prove that you also could make a beautiful product and have a business but one who protects human rights."
Odegard was a founding member of the RugMark Foundation, which fights to end illegal child labor in the worldwide carpet industry, in countries such as Pakistan.
"If a child is found on the looms, they're put into a rehabilitation program and put into school and we help pay for their education through age 17," she said. "Since we've done this in 1998, we've affected about 5,000 lives."
In her work and her travels, Odegard hopes to encourage consumers to pay attention to what they purchase.
"By consumer demand for labor-free products, that could change the world as far as human rights are concerned," she said. "This is the real root of terrorism - poverty and everything related to it."
Event
What: Designer Stephanie Odegard speaking on "Sustainable Design and Social Responsibility"
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road
Cost: $7.50 adults, $5.50 seniors, free for 18 and under.
For more: Visit tulsaworld.com/philbrook or tulsaworld.com/srhughes
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: April, 2010; Peace Corps Fiji; Directory of Fiji RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Fiji RPCVs; Business; Fashion
When this story was posted in May 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Tulsa World
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Fiji; Business; Fashion; Clothing
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