This is Ayimbono, a Fra-Fra woman from Northern Ghana. Like most of the villagers in this region, she is a subsistence farmer with little access to education or opportunities to earn an income. Her husband died seven years ago, leaving her to support their five children by herself.

As an illiterate widow, basket weaving is her sole means of earning money to buy food, seeds, and pay for her children's school fees. It takes one to two days to complete one basket. On market day, she competes to sell her baskets with many other women. Local market prices are very low for baskets, and after she subtracts the cost of materials, her net profit might be as little as .23 cents per basket. This is not enough to buy even the most basic of foods; millet, to feed her and her children. They are often hungry.

Unfortunately, local middlemen have seen the opportunity to capitalize on her and other Fra-Fra women's illiteracy and misfortune. Middlemen buy the baskets for often less than the going market price, cheating the women because many cannot negotiate or count money. This practice keeps the women in abject poverty and hunger. Most baskets being sold in the West are bought from middlemen, as they are usually educated, business savvy and literate. Through buying directly from the Fra-Fra women in the village at Fair Trade prices, Ojoba Collective has been able to give Ayimbono and her children money to go to school and put food on the table.