Keep an eye out for Fairtrade

Found this at sainsbury's Kings Heath.  Great range of Fairtrade sugars, very impressive.  and what's more, when I asked the assistant about them she was knowledgeable too.

Well done everyone at Sainsbury's  

Fairtrade Gold in Birmingham

A bit late putting this up, but great video

Renewal, meet, fair and Fair

The next FAB meeting will be on Thursday 22^nd November 5.30pm at

Midlands Co-operative Society

Member Relations Centre

BMI Margaret Street

Birmingham

B3 3BS

Everyone welcome – we will be discussing renewing the city’s Fairtrade status.  If anyone has information on Fairtrade events (over the last 2 years) that we could include please let us know

Come and visit the LUCIA Charity stall on 24^th November 11.00 – 3.00 at the Christmas Craft Fair - Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham for your Christmas cards and hand made and ethnic gifts.  LUCIA supports sustainable projects for women and children in Ethiopia.

Many thanks

Jane

Fairtrade Coffee flying off the shelves

Yes, at this coop on dog pool lane, Kings Heath people can't keep their hands off the fairtrade coffee, so the management keep it alongside the fags, whiskey and Moshi Monster cards behind the counter.

'when we had it before [on the shelf] it used to go walkies', the helpful shop assistant explains.

fairtrade coffee and hand model are both available at a supermarket near you.  

Walk Against Crime

On the 3rd week of July,2012 people from all walks of life are joining their hands(rather their feet) to help raise awareness of the plight of young people in a slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Mathare as it is called is an area of concern as it is rife with crime, prostitution and drug taking.  Living is a slum can be a horrid experience where there is no basic sanitation and clean drinking water .It becomes hard to make something out of your life when one is mired with such deprivation.

Slums are dotted everywhere in the world particularly affecting the emerging economies of South Asia and Africa. The rapid urbanisation of big cities brings with it hordes of immigrants from the countryside in search of better life. But they leave their farming community for a life of exploitation and trafficking.

There is hope for them if we do something about it. You can support a number of initiatives to support over 200 young people in Mathare by helping them come out of a life of crime. Three people from Mathare slum are joining us for our Transpenine walk from South Sea to Hornsea on 21st of July. You can either join us for a day or two, or three weeks. We would try to raise the awareness and hope to raise some money during our walk.

The UK charity, managing and planning the event is the Zuri Foundation supported by Jeremy Piercy, founder and MD of Shared Earth.


see: http://www.walkagainstcrime.org

Summer Ball for LUCIA

Celebrate Co-operatives event 30th June

Traidcraft Tour South India, Illustrated Talk, 24th June

For "Meet the People" trip to India, John and Gill met some of the Traidcraft producers as well as other interesting groups of people and doing the usual sightseeing. 

They will be giving an illustrated talk about their experiences on the Traidcraft "Meet the People" tour to the south of India on Sunday 24th June at 5p.m. in All Saints church, Kings Heath. Come and find out about the groups they met and the how the producers have been helped by Traidcraft's support and advice.

Vulnerable Women's Empowerment Project in Ethiopia

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While the Birmingham Fair trade groups were busy working hard in Fair trade fortnight one of their members travelled out to Ethiopia to visit one of the many projects run by LUCIA Life Uplifted by Change In Africa www.luciacharity.org.uk. The project was started in February this year and it is one of many such projects LUCIA has supported and found to be a successful way to improve the lives of vulnerable, poor, healthy women and their families. The LUCIA team was welcomed with such warmth by the ladies who'd gone to enormous trouble with their hospitality by making bread and performing the Ethiopian coffee ceremony in their guests' honour. The LUCIA team felt really humbled to be given so much by people who have so very little.

The 'Vulnerable Women's Empowerment Project' is based in Addis Ababa which is being run and supervised by The Women and Children Development Organisation (WCDO), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in partnership with LUCIA. The project will support the 30 women in self-employment opportunities, in small business activities and newly established community-based saving and credit co-operatives. The indirect beneficiaries will number 380 family members.

LUCIA was started in 2005 and has, over the seven years, supported many co-operative projects like this one.

The team has enjoyed the pleasure of watching the women grow into confident assertive business managers and, dare we say it, start to physically walk taller!

Sylvia Gardner
Sent from my phone

Flowers from Ethiopia

Christine Gates is a LUCIA officer and strong support of Fair Trade.  

As a florist and part owner with Lynda John in Flower Fayre, a business shop in Shirley, I've been given the opportunity to give my support by offering shop floor space to a Birmingham local charity LUCIA - Life Uplifted by Change In Africa www.luciacharity.org.uk, which is run by enthusiast volunteers who offer hope to some of the poorest women and children in Ethiopia.

In February this year imagine my surprise when a week before going as one of the  LUCIA team on a field trip to visit some of the projects in Ethiopia, I discover the Dolcetta rose is actually grown by Linssen at Addis Alem, Ethiopia, just one hour's drive from the centre of Addis Ababa.

Linssen, a Dutch company, grow on the farm two fair trade roses, giving good working conditions and fair pay for the local people.

A visit was arranged for myself and the rest of the LUCIA team to visit the farm. On arrival we found ourselves looking at what seemed like miles and miles of poly tunnels filled with the most superb rose bushes.

The healthy plants, we were told by the works manager, a beautiful Ethiopia young woman, flower every two months giving the most amazing harvest of healthy flowers. We visited the packing room where the cut flowers are graded and packed to go to Holland on the next morning flight to be auctioned and sent on the next day to the shops in Europe.

They keep the flowers refrigerated all through the journey from tree to shop to ensure they arrive in perfect condition.

The whole trip in Ethiopia for me was truly amazing: seeing the work and help that can make such a difference to some of the poorest people in the world by just a little support was an inspiration. However, with my belief in fair trade and my personal passion for flowers the rose farm visit will hold a very special place indeed.

       
Sent from my phone

FAB market at Sustainability fair

Excellent day in Victoria Square, as part of Birmingham's Sustainability Fair.  Here are a few photos from the day:

Traidcraft tour Southern India

Gill and John Parkin presents Traidcraft 'Meet the People' tour to Southern India, 2012 
(presented at All Saints Social Justice Group, February):

We started off in Kerala, landing in Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) spending some time in the city
visiting Fair Trade Alliance Kerala and visiting farmers in the hills to the north east of the city.
From there we went south by train to Allepuzha and spent one night on the backwaters before
working our way east visiting a tea growing area and the Periyar wildlife park. From there we
crossed the central Ghats into Tamil Nadu to visit a project called “Reaching the Unreached”
(which is a talk in its own right) and the Meenaskshi Temple in Madurai before travelling by
overnight train to Chennai and then by road to Pondicherry. There we visited various projects,
some connected with Traidcraft.



Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) is spread throughout Kerala covering 3,000 small farmers
in six districts.

More fairsteps across Birmingham

More pledges, artwork, activities and chocolate (thanks Coop) across Kings Heath, and also at Evergreen Care Home, winners of our FAB photo competition, October 2011:

Fairtrade Chocolate at theTea Dance, KHCC 

Freya helps make fairtrade chocolate eggs at Evergreen Res home, Stechford 

Foot Pledges at All Saints Church, part of Fairtrade at Kings Heath Farmers Market

Traidcraft table set out for Education Sunday, All Saints Church

More footprints and handprints for fairsteps 

First steps for Fairsteps in Kings Heath

Freya examines the pledges so far

Today we started 'fairsteps', based on fairtrade foundation's 'Take a step in 2012' campaign in Kings Heath Community Centre Playgroup (thanks Midlands Coop for free chocolate and other goodies).

Children, parents and carers worked together to decorate paper feet, add their fairtrade pledges, and stick them up on our washing line.

This is the first of several workshops to take place across Kings Heath, and to be added to more in the city centre on 10th March.

It's a great opportunity to discuss what people think about fairtrade:

'This isn't something I think about everyday, and it should be.'

Attitudes to fairtrade are changing, but although fairtrade movement is growing there is still a lack of awareness about what is available - no one in the group, for instance, was aware of 'fairmined Gold', and one parent did comment, 'I can't afford fairtrade'.

The Fairtrade movement has taken many steps to get to where we are today - fairtrade still needs to work to get it's core message out, to promote the new lines and commodities available, and  to keep in step and understand what our customers are looking for, in terms of ethics and commodities.  Thank goodness for fairtrade fortnight.

FAB celebrates fairtrade fairmined gold

Members of FAB will be walking from Victoria Square to the Jewellery Quarter on Saturday 3rd March at midday to celebrate Fairmined Gold, a new and exciting development of ethical trade.  FAB is using the theme of Fairtrade Fortnight of “Make your step count” to follow the tourist trail of footsteps to the Jewellery Quarter and promote Fairmined Gold. They are being joined by Jewellery Quarter’s Cookson Gold and Weston Beamor who supply Fairmined Gold to the trade.

Fairtrade and Fairmined certified gold, the world's first independent ethical certification system for gold, will offer you the guarantee of a product which has been responsibly mined. All Fairtrade and Fairmined gold is mined from small-scale and artisan mines in a way that seeks to reduce dependence on harmful chemicals. Good news for mining communities in South America and good news for the people who live and mine there. Look carefully and you'll find the Fairtrade and Fairmined stamp on the inside of every piece.

'I think that Fairtrade is going to help us to sell our gold at the right price and we will be better paid. It will also help the environment.' Gina Dávila, mineral sorter, Sotrami Mine.

FAB have been supporting a range of promotional events throughout Fairtrade Fortnight to promote ethical trade and encourage people of Birmingham and the West Midlands to support retailers who sell Fairtrade goods.

John Boyle Chair of FAB:

“ this celebratory walk is a simple step toward making peoples lives better, by encouraging people in the UK to shop with their heart they will benefit those who have no choices due to their absolute poverty.”

For further information please contact:
John Boyle
07736792518
john.boyle@midlands.coop

The Sustainability Spring fair

Carrs Lane Fair Trade Shop

Int'l Dev Secretary praises Wolverhampton’s fairtrade pioneers

Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, is today visiting Wolverhampton
to taste fairtrade coffee from the city’s new pioneers of fair and ethical trading, Revolver
World, ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight later this month.

Meeting Revolver with the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Bert Turner, and the Executive
Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb, Andrew Mitchell said:

“Revolver has proved that fair and ethical trading can be both good for British business
and can transform the lives of the poorest. Making a small change to your weekly shop,
like buying Revolver’s superb Fairtrade coffee can make a real difference to those who
farm these everyday essentials. You are also supporting an iconic local company. I’m
delighted that Wolverhampton is leading the way in bringing new, commercially successful
ways to tackle global poverty.

The visit comes ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight, which highlights that fairtrade goods can
guarantee farmers and producers in the poorest countries receive a fair price for their
produce and boosting their families’ income. The British Government supports the
Fairtrade Foundation to help bring similar promising products to British customers.

Paul Birch, Managing Director of Revolver World said:
"Customers know they can make a difference to the lives of people they will never meet,
when making decisions about what they place into their shopping baskets. Music may
have the power to change people's lives, but we at Revolver Records wanted to do
something more tangible - we're working with famers in Uganda and Tanzania to make
Fairtrade coffee, and cotton growers in India to help us make Fairtrade clothes, all of which
helps them to escape poverty."

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: ‘By supporting
businesses who work in a fair and ethical way with small-holder producers in developing
countries, the government is helping farmers to earn a sustainable living. It’s great to see
Andrew Mitchell encouraging businesses to behave responsibly by creating stronger links
with those farmers and workers on whom they depend.

“Fairtrade is a living example of responsible capitalism – both enabling businesses here to
take a step towards tackling poverty, and a means for smallholders in developing countries
to build their own businesses.’

Useful links:

1. Find out more about how DFID supports Fairtrade here: http://projects.dfid.gov.uk/

Fairtrade working with Sports relief

There is an exciting opportunity for Fairtrade Towns and Cities to get involved with the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile flagship events taking place in one of the following locations on Sunday 25^th March:


London 
Manchester 
Edinburgh 
Glasgow 
Belfast 
Cardiff 
Plymouth 
Southampton 
Brighton and Hove 
Milton Keynes 
Bristol 
Birmingham 
Nottingham 
Norwich 
Leeds 
Hull 
Newcastle 
Gateshead


Fairtrade groups in these locations have been offered the chance to take part by having some kind some of Fairtrade presence, eg holding a stall at each of the Sport Relief Flagship events.


Further details can be found on the Sports Relief website at the following link: http://www.sportrelief.com/the-mile#tab3


This offer does provide a great opportunity to Take a Step for Fairtrade beyond Fairtrade Fortnight in 2012.  But time is running short so if you feel able to take that additional step (or should I say go that extra mile?) for Fairtrade Fortnight this year then please contact me as soon as possible and we shall be delighted to send on further details.


Bruce Crowther Fairtrade Towns Advisor Fairtrade Foundation

Normal working hours: 8am - 4pm Mon, Thurs and Fri.

Tel: 01995 601258

Mobile: 07866 541940

Fair trade to Climate Change

As a former employee of Shared Earth, (a fair trading company), which has gone to liquidation on the 16th January 2012, I would like to take this opportunity to give my honest overview of the state of our high street activity and how, despite our setback, fair trade can still and will continue to bring positive changes in terms of reducing our carbon footprint and bringing an equality in terms of addressing poverty and trade imbalance.

People say that this recession is the worst they have seen in their lifetime. We are curbing our spending, rightly so, and one can see the result on the high street as one shop falls after the other like a pack of cards. We are surely in a dire state of affairs and lot of policy changes have to be made if we are to come out strong and healthy in a couple of years. But we need to see things in perspective. Despite our so called recession, we are still far better off than millions in the developing world who still don’t have access to proper education, clean drinking water, hygienic sanitation and so on.

For example in India, probably only one third of the population is in the organised sector while the rest has to survive with atrocious working conditions, earning below the ‘living’ wage. Parents still have to send their children to work on the streets or factories where there are no safety measures in place. Kids have to put up with back breaking ten to fourteen hours a day with no proper breaks and a normal childhood snatched away from their grasp. There is no social security net in place (which I am enjoying now) if one looses work, so the impact is unimaginable. That means a child could go hungry overnight, quitting school, as you still have to pay for books, pens and paper.  Psychological repercussions for the parent are immense and one can easily become a victim of sleazy exploitation.

We have to think, what kind of society we want? Do we want a self centred society where we think of our own good, or we build a culture where we share our resources in a humanitarian way. We have a duty to our fellow beings whether they are from our own local community or an impoverished community in a different geographical location. Fair and ethical trade answers a lot of difficult questions. It’s not fool proof by any stretch of imagination but it, at least, recognises the problem and does something positive about it. There have been recent articles that tried to castigate the fair trade movement and highlighting all the evils associated with it.

It’s understandable that the words ‘fair’ and ‘ethics’ means different things to different people but fundamentally it tries to do good.  Fair and ethical trade is also about using our resources in a sustainable way. By using less water, generating less waste, promoting sustainable transportation and boosting self reliance in food and energy, we can go on a long way in tackling climate change, that could have a devastating effect on the planet.

There has been a paradigm shift the way we see our lives in the wake of global warming. Whatever we do in our daily lives, we do depend on non renewable fossil fuels from driving cars to printing paper. Although we cannot go back to pre-industrial age, we can do things to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Scientific evidence shows that global temperature has risen over the past century and more acutely in the last couple of decades. Fair Trade answers a lot of these questions as well as most non food products are handmade with minimal factory production, which in turn has a very low CO2 emission rate. Climate change is increasingly recognised as a major challenge and it’s apt we take a note of it. With regards to fuel usage, vehicle usage, electricity bill, employee travel and sourcing stocks from other countries we can ensure that the whole process emits the minimum greenhouse gases as possible.  And the way to go forward is to have fairness in the heart of our business principles.

Other links:


Fair trade shop Shared Earth to close Birmingham store as company faces liquidation

Blood, Sweat, & Chocolate

New Year's resolution: Hosting?

Still not thought of a New Year’s resolution? Why not host a destitute asylum seeker with Birch.


The Birmingham Community Hosting Network

Many refugees become homeless, especially during the period when they have been refused permission to remain in the UK but not required to leave. In response to this situation, several cities have created networks of people willing and able to offer accommodation, which may be for a few nights or a few months. Such a network has been started in Birmingham, and a meeting has been arranged for Wednesday 25^th January, at 7.30 p.m. in the Marjorie Allen Room of the church.  Rachel and Liz from the  BIRCH network will explain their work. They already have three people active as hosts.  Would you like to find out more?

Rachel says ‘We recognise that this kind of hospitality is not something that many folk can offer, but we are not looking for many, just one or two more,  to get the network started’.

If you think this might be a calling to you, please come to the meeting. Members of the Social Justice Action Group will be hosting the meeting, which will be chaired by John Hull.

Birch website: http://www.birchnetwork.org/about

Tel.07933 565186
birchnetwork@gmail.com

Cocoa Coop visitor will answer your questions

Fairtrade Foundation UK are getting ready to give a warm welcome to cocoa farmer Kouame Alphonse Fasseri on his visit to the UK from 22 – 29 January 2012. Kouame is from the Ivory Coast and a proud member of the Fairtrade co-operative, Kavokiva, who supply cocoa for Nestle’s Fairtrade Kit Kat. Kouame will be taking a break from his busy week to answer your questions and we’ll put them and Kouame’s answers on our website, so check here at the end of January. 

Kavokiva have taken some great steps with Fairtrade, including investing in education and health care for the whole community, as well as making improvements to their cocoa farms. Kouame, also famous from his back-of-Kit Kat pack appearances, is keen to answer your questions.

Send him yours by emailing kouameanswers@fairtrade.org.uk by 21 January 2012.

Tell your friends – and make this one of your first steps for Fairtrade in 2012.

We are looking forward to reading your questions!

Fairtrade Foundation

Aston University Go Green Week

Aston University will be hosting our third annual Go Green Week from Monday 6^th – Friday 10^th February 2012.

The week is intended to raise awareness about sustainability (including issues of fairtrade) and is open to our staff, students and the general public. One of the main events we will be holding this year is an ‘eco-market’. The market will be held on Tuesday 7^th February, from 11.30am – 2.30pm in our Student Guild Hall. In previous years these events have been very popular and we would like to get as many local organisations and people involved as possible - there will be local stallholders, sustainable catering and information stands.

See more - http://www1.aston.ac.uk/about/environment/go-green-awards/

Victoria Johnsen
Environment and Sustainability Officer
Estates and Capital Development