About Point of Contact

Thank you for your interest and for visiting our site.

What is Point of Contact?

Point of Contact is both a company registered in England and Wales (No. 04008888) since 2000, as well as a charity registered in England and Wales (No. 1088034) since 2001.  We have worked in Ethiopia with poor small-scale producers of handicraft products since 1999.  Over this time we have seen real change in our partners’ lives through enabling and encouraging them to grow and to flourish in all aspects of their lives.  Although we have purchased over £63,000 of Fairly Traded goods, we do not want to narrowly focus on just one statistic.  For a start, this figure does not include the sales to other groups or individuals; and secondly, and more importantly, we do not believe that statistics alone can measure what is happening.  We see relationship as being at the heart of our work – relationship with God, and then flowing out of this, our relationship with those with whom we work.  This is illustrated by our partners’ testimonies that can be accessed through the link below.

Sustainable partnership, not a handout

Point of Contact is not simply a company that buys products at a fair price.  We work with groups over the long-term, helping them to design, make and market their goods.  The motivation behind this work is not simply to help people to sell their goods, but through living out our Christian faith, we want to connect people (of any faith or none) with our experience of a living and loving God.

We understand that in this secular age, many people do not believe in God, but for us, our faith is not a theoretical idea, but it is at the heart of our lives.  Through our experience in Ethiopia we know that our work and its results are NOT based on our own efforts – but ultimately on God’s faithfulness (2 Timothy 2: 13).  We know that as human beings we are weak and frail, and that without God, anything we did would be equally frail.  In the Bible, David refers to God as “my rock” – and this is what we have sought to build the work on – God as our rock and as the stronghold of our lives (see Psalm 18: 2).