Bookstore sells charity purses

The campus bookstore is now selling ITSERA, a line of fair-trade purses developed by a father and daughter alumni team to benefit women who are exploited in Thailand's sex industry.

ITSERA, the Thai word for freedom, features woven leather purses crafted by women who were once a part of, or at risk for, sex trafficking in Pattaya, Thailand. The proceeds from sales allow the women an opportunity for employment other than the sex industry, which entraps 25 percent of the inhabitants of Pattaya, according to the ITSERA website.

"Poverty is often at the root of prostitution and trafficking,"said Carter Quinley, a 2011 graduate, who helped to develop the ITSERA purse project. "It is so important to help create alternative means of employment for those who otherwise would not have the chance to work anywhere other than in the bars as prostitutes."

Quinley and Tran Doan, a 2010 graduate, established the ITSERA purse project in 2009 with a $10,000 grant they won from the Davis United World College Peace Project, Quinley said. To get approval for the project, the pair needed the support of another organization. Quinley took the project to Step Ahead Integrated Community Development, a Christian-based organization in Thailand. Step Ahead was founded by Carter Quinley's father, John Quinley, who graduated from Richmond in 1979. He founded Step Ahead to serve the slum communities of Thailand in 2002.

"Being a father of a daughter and knowing how much my wife and I have desired a fulfilling life for Carter, we never wanted to see other girls exploited and devastated," John Quinley said in an email from Thailand. "This is about hoping to provide real answers."

The Quinleys have lived in Thailand since 1989, John Quinley said. Step Ahead began in the Klong Toey community of Bangkok, Thailand, with a micro-enterprise development program to provide the working poor with small loans and business training.

Since 2002, the organization has expanded across Thailand and into a variety of economic stimulation activities such as ITSERA, child development centers, computer training, and agricultural and eco-tourism programs, John Quinley said.

"We saw that the answers needed by poor families were more than just money," John Quinley said. "They needed mentoring and training. When families have stable livelihoods and economic security, they find their children access to more education and they are far less likely to fall prey to unsafe migrations."

During the summer of 2011, senior Alex Hopper, sophomore Miki Doan and junior Rachel Pricer interned with Step Ahead in Thailand. Hopper and Pricer were stationed in Khao Lak, Thailand, teaching English to preschoolers in the Step Ahead child development centers that had been established after the tsunami devastation in 2004, Hopper said. Miki Doan taught English to the seven women who make the ITERSA purses in Pattaya, Thailand, she said.

Miki Doan said that it had been impossible to avoid the presence of the sex industry while in Pattaya.

"You can see it everywhere," she said. "There are women every five steps on the main street during a weekend night. You can see girls as young as 13 years old wearing short skirts and being hired by older, Western men."

When the three women met in Pattaya during the summer, they decided that the ITSERA products should be sold in the bookstore, Miki Doan said.

"We thought that ITSERA was similar to the Vera Bradley that the bookstore already sells, but it has actual meaning behind it," Miki Doan said. "I contacted one of my professors, who helped me to get in touch with the bookstore. After a month of planning, the purses finally arrived."

Richmond is the first college campus to sell ITSERA products, John Quinley said. Roger Brooks, the campus bookstore's general manager, said John Quinley had sent him a starter package with seven wallets, seven coin purses, a hobo bag, a tote, an essential bag and a clutch.

The coin purses, $25, and the wallets, $40, are available in black, brown, pink, lime, navy, orange, purple, red, teal, turquoise or yellow. The hobo bag and tote, both $250, the essential bag, $200, and the clutch, $185, are offered in black, brown, navy blue or red. The products are displayed behind the cash registers at the front of the store.

"This is the first product sold at the bookstore where the proceeds go directly toward charity," Brooks said. "No one has ever approached me in the past about products for charity. These are very nice bags, and the prices match the nice quality. Aside from the vendors that we bring in from outside, these are the most expensive items that the bookstore sells."

Brooks said as long as the products sold, he would bring in more stock.

Carter Quinley said: "Wearing an ITSERA purse is truly changing the lives of these precious Thai women who make the purses. It's also such a great way to start conversations about the issue of sex trafficking with others. Use your freedom to raise awareness against this issue."

Correction: Twenty-five percent of inhabitants of Pattaya, Thailand, not 25 percent of all Thai women as stated in an earlier version of the article.

Contact staff writer Erin Moyer at erin.moyer@richmond.edu.