FARMINGTON – What do handcrafts from women’s cooperatives in Guatemala and Peru have to do with health care provided by medical brigades or brigadistas living in remote mountainous villages in Nicaragua?

A lot, said Dr. Connie Adler and Babbie Cameron, two Wilton women who are making the connection by way of a craft fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, in the Bass Conference Room at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

“All proceeds from the craft sale will enable a medical and human rights team to visit the remote villages on a regular basis to supplement the work of the brigadistas. They will provide medical and prenatal care, contraception and preventive screenings to the sick and pregnant,” said Adler, noting that the infant and maternal mortality in Nicaragua is the highest in the western hemisphere next to Haiti.

Adler is a local obstetrician, who has been working for years in Nicaragua with the Maria Luisa Ortiz Women’s Cooperative Clinic in Mulukuku, which last year trained the brigadistas to provide first aid and treatment for a few easily identifiable but preventable diseases to the people in their remote villages.

“It only seems fitting that the Guatemalan and Peruvian crafts that will be on sale were purchased from women’s cooperatives,” said Cameron, who has spent her life as a fundraiser for social justice projects around the world.

Cameron stresses the fact that the cooperatives are members of the Fair Trade Federation (www.fairtradefederation.org). The Fair Trade label, she said, guarantees that the person who made the item received a fair wage and was provided with human working conditions.

Last year, proceeds from the craft fair went toward the purchase of an ambulance for the clinic in Mulukuku, a town the size of Farmington. “This year, the clinic is reaching further into the mountains, which are not reachable by road, only on horseback or by foot,” said Adler.

Last year the crafts, which range from clothing to jewelry, table linen and toys were sold out in the first hour, reports Cameron, adding that she has tripled the amount that will be available this year. Also, for the first time, fair trade coffee and tea will be for sale.

Also, this year, joining what is becoming an annual Farmington event, will be several area groups and churches working on behalf of social justice in Honduras, South Africa and Zambia.