Nonprofit selling Liberian products

A new nonprofit selling mostly Liberian-made goods will debut today at the Everybody’s Bazaar & Yard Sale.

The Four Corners Market is owned by Amber and Peter Glanville, who admired the handmade baskets, carvings and other goods they saw in Liberia last November, where they adopted Henry, now 2 years old.

Peter Glanville said they were also overwhelmed by the poverty they saw in the West African nation that’s still recovering from a 14-year civil war. The unemployment rate is 85 percent.

“Our hearts were torn out,” Glanville said. “We just want to help.”

Liberia became their destination after they connected with Ahmad Kamara, a Liberian studying firefighting in Pullman and Rosalia, Wash. Kamara slept on the Glanvilles’ couch for three months before he returned to Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, in January.

In the meantime, the Glanvilles brought Henry home, and on the trip gave Kamara’s mother $1,000 her son had earned in Glanville’s cabinet shop.

Peter Glanville returned to Liberia in August, staying with Kamara, who is the Four Corners purchasing representative there. Glanville also visited two Monrovian orphanages, which he describes as “dungeons” with dirt floors and stone walls.

“It’s unlimited what needs to be done over there,” he said.

Emerging Markets Inc., the parent of Four Corners, is partnering with Orphan Relief and Rescue to help pay for a cement floor at one of the orphanages, he said, provided sales of its newly delivered goods go well. The selection also will include bracelets made by former Philippine prostitutes.

Glanville said he and his wife have invested $6,000 in their new enterprise.

“It would be depressing if it sputtered and died before it got off the runway,” said Glanville, who envisions a company importing fair-trade goods for sale locally and online.

Everybody’s Bazaar organizer Shawn Shukle, of The Spokesman-Review’s marketing department, said she looks forward to seeing the Four Corners display. The business will be one of just 22 that will be surrounded by 190 other, mostly individual and family sellers gathered inside The Hub at 19619 E. Cataldo Ave. Doors open at 8 a.m. and close at 4 p.m.

Admission is $4, with children under 10 years old free. Parking also is free.

The Spokesman-Review is producing the event, sponsored by Union Gospel Missions and Classy Rack, which receives any goods exhibitors do not sell and do not want to take home.