AGM summary – Pan African Training Programme

Pan African Training Programme

The Foundation’s pan African training programme has been running for over two years now and is a joint project with The Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa (COFTA). This year alone we have trained in 7 countries throughout Africa. In Rwanda, Uganda. Ethiopia, Senegal, Egypt, South Africa and Ghana and we are currently planning the programme for 2009.

In September 2008 we held four training workshops in South Africa designed to increase producers’ understanding of the value of fair trade. These were facilitated by me in partnership with local business development consultancy Fetola Mmoho and FTSA (Fair Trade South Africa). Training at different venues in Cape Town, Franschhoek and Tulbagh attracted 81 participants, which exceeded expectations. This was a significant increase on the 12 participants who attended a similar series of workshops held in the previous year; and an indication of a rapid increase in interest in fair trade in South Africa.

One of the organizations that attended the training was Umtha which means “ray of light” in Xhosa language and the organisation has certainly brightened the lives of disadvantaged women in Cape Town. Almost all of Umtha’s employees are women, and many are single mothers and some are HIV positive. The organisation like many other fair trade organisations provides additional support to their employees, on top of a fair wage, the also receive regular training, health care support and assistance in budgeting. Although this jewellery business works under the same principle’s as Fair Trade, however is not yet a registered Fair Trade business, so the training that I provided was Fair Trade Awareness to enable the organisation to officially join the Fair trade movement and reap the benefits. I trained their staff and management team so everyone understood what it meant to be a fair trade organisation. Since then the organisation has submitted its application and are on the road to becoming registered.