This summer, SAI welcomed its most recent advisory board member, Christian Ewert. Mr. Ewert is currently Director General of the Foreign Trade Association (FTA), an organization committed to promoting free trade and sustainable supply chains. FTA has partnered closely with SAI in the past, especially through the collaboration between SAI and FTA's Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI).

As Director General, Mr. Ewert has led FTA through a number of initiatives this year, including informing the European Parliament's recent resolution commemorating the Rana Plaza collapse, and advocating that the EU adapt trade policy to reflect modern global value chains. 

Prior to his position at FTA, Christian was President and CEO of the International Council of Toy Industries CARE Foundation, which promotes socially sustainable production of children's toys and juvenile products. He has also served as COO and Board Member at the German toy company Zapf Creation, as well as CEO of Boards and More Group, a water and winter sports products company. Given his background in industry and extensive knowledge surrounding supply chain compliance, he will bring a diverse and valuable perspective to SAI's board meetings. 

With regards to his new board position, Christian Ewert says: "I am delighted to join the SAI Advisory Board, my objective is to contribute my knowledge of corporate and social compliance towards the continued success of SAI. Having already enjoyed a decade of a long and close relationship with SAI, FTA/BSCI will continue to explore common interests, cooperation and collaboration for our mutual benefit."
 

Maria Sheikh was a participant in the SA8000 Basic Course that took place in New York City June 15-19. She traveled to the course from Chicago, where she works with the Muslim Women's Resource Center (MWRC). MWRC provides a variety of services to its community, including integrating recent immigrants into American life, assisting individuals with preparation for citizenship, facilitating children's programs, and homecare for the elderly.

Maria first became interested in attending the training because her brother had attended an SAI training and recommended that Maria experience one as well. Additionally, Maria had noticed a lack of a social auditing presence in Chicago and was interested in bringing some of her knowledge back to the area. She already nurtured an interest in many of the topics addressed by SA8000 and frequently reads human rights-related articles.

Upon arriving at the course, Maria was surprised by a few things. She had expected the course to be technically dense and difficult; although it was indeed challenging, she found that the course was designed for diverse audiences and she could understand better than she had anticipated. Something else that surprised her was learning that social auditing requires a great deal of subjective decision-making. As Maria came to understand, there are many more "grey areas" in this field than one might expect. Ultimately, it is the job of the social auditor to make many difficult decisions, weighing various evidence. Although social auditors can refer to the standards against which they are evaluating a facility, assessing a factory is about more than completing a checklist; it requires a great deal of critical thinking and experience.

Among the most memorable parts of the course for Maria was when she heard a story about an auditor who was held in a factory for four hours due to issuing a non-conformance, as well as another auditor who was threatened with a gun. This increased her respect for social auditors and illuminated to her how important it is for companies to realize that audits are meant to help them, not to hurt them.

Since completing the course, Maria's interest in and knowledge of social auditing has strengthened. She intends to bring knowledge she gained from the course back to her community in Chicago. Workplace issues are gaining increasing attention in Illinois. For example, a proposed "Right to Work" bill recently caused controversy in the state legislature.
 

 As a young person, I questioned the inequality I saw in my community and beyond. I went on to explore issues of homelessness in the US, economic underdevelopment abroad and the conditions for sustainable peace. I studied the concept of local empowerment in development work, and later joined an NGO promoting rural development through social entrepreneurship in Central and South America.