By Jon Jacoby, CEO, GoodWeave International

As we at GoodWeave celebrate International Workers’ Day, there is no moment more fitting to pay tribute to Pharis and the instrumental role that he played in shaping the trajectory of our work.

In our earliest days, he supported and mentored co-founders Kailash Satyarthi and Nina Smith in incubating RugMark (now GoodWeave) at the International Labor Rights Fund (now Global Labor Justice). As a supremely dedicated board member, Pharis helped us grow into a grassroots-to-global network of GoodWeave affiliates working alongside many partners and allies to protect vulnerable children and workers in supply chains.

An ordained United Methodist minister, Pharis dedicated his life to advancing human rights. He served as Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Fund, co-Chair of the Child Labor Coalition, and led the North American Coalition for Human Rights in Korea. His work also extended to research, teaching, and storytelling, including as a Senior Program Consultant for Stolen Childhoods and as the author of Trading Away the Future: Child Labor in India’s Export Industries. In 1996, he received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in recognition of his contributions to labor rights.

Through his example and now in his memory, Pharis showed what this movement stands for. He demonstrated that change is possible when we work alongside workers to change systems and shift power toward them.

While in Chicago recently, I was yet again reminded that our American movement to end child labor and worker exploitation stands on the shoulders of giants: Jane Addams, Mother Jones, A. Philip Randolph, Frances Perkins, Florence Kelley, and so many others. GoodWeave’s pioneers – Kailash, Nina, and yes, Pharis – have together played a crucial role in the modern-day, global version of that same struggle.

We are grateful for Pharis’ leadership, his conviction, and the path he helped build. May his memory be a blessing and a call to continue this work, together.