About

Our Organization

Trade Justice Mission is a non-profit organization responding to God's call to break the chains of poverty binding the least and the lost.

We partner with other NGOs to provide micro financing, training, marketing and long-term development opportunities for the world's most impoverished and marginalized.

Our Okoa Jewelry line helps impoverished women form cooperatives that create beautiful jewelry. We then market the cooperative’s jewelry and return 100% of the profits to the women in the cooperatives. In doing so, the women build vibrant local economies that lift up their families and communities.

Trade Justice Mission also works with organizations and socially/environmentally conscious consumers interested in learning how to make economic choices that lift up the impoverished.
Together we can empower, enrich, and restore the lives of marginalized women.

Our Mission

  1. To obey God’s command to care for the poor.
  2. To provide crucial fair income to Third World women and their families and communities by providing them with micro-financing, training, and marketing tools.
  3. To educate everyone on the importance of Fair Trade and how our daily shopping choices impact people around the world.
  4. To build bridges of understanding, compassion, and mutual respect through Fair Trade and the artistry of handcrafted Okoa jewelry.

Our Name

To us Trade Justice means promoting Fair Trade Products and supporting Fair Trade Policies that enable all people to exercise their right to make a decent living, educate their children, build vibrant and healthy communities, and protect their environment. Trade polices that put profits before the needs of people and the planet are morally wrong.

The name “Okoa” means “Restoration” in Swahili. The Okoa Jewelry line strives to restore justice, dignity, and hope through the artistry of beautiful jewelry.

Our Story

Our story began with our work with sex trafficked teenage girls in the Philippines and widows with Aids in Zambia. These women bore the scars of exploitation, but their hearts burned for a better life even though dire poverty and cultural marginalization left them little hope of escape. As a result, TJM launched its Okoa Jewelry cooperatives in Asia, Indonesia, Africa, and the Philippines.