Archive for December, 2009
Cards from Africa – in Welsh!
Fair trade shop, Fairdo’s, in Cardiff has recently started to sell fair trade cards with Welsh language greetings. The cards, made by Cards from Africa, in Rwanda are a first for both Fairdo’s as the first Welsh language cards made for them by a company based in the ‘South’, it is also a first for [...]
The Secluded South East of Costa Rica
Our first producer visit in Costa Rica was to APPTA, a group of remotely based communities growing cocoa and bananas. We made the day-long journey to the Talamanca region of Costa Rica with our colleague Hugo, stopping in Limon to sample the Caribbean twist on the country’s favourite dish Gallo Pinto. With two hours to [...]
‘SEWING’ THE SEEDS OF FAIR TRADE IN TANZANIA FOR SHARED INTEREST
After 27 hours non-stop travel, two 6-hour stopovers and 3 different planes, I finally arrived to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. As always the interminable journey had been worth it to be back on African soil. And anyway, I had met up with Rachel Ngondo, our African Regional Development Executive, at Nairobi so I’d had [...]
Customer Focus – Dukunde Kawa Cooperative (MUSASA)
MUSASA was founded in 2000 with 300 founder members and was legally incorporated in 2002. The cooperative is located in Ruli sector of Rushashi district and cultivates its high quality coffee near a mountain gorilla habitat of central Rwanda. In 2003, Musasa cooperative built a washing station in Rushashi district with the help of a [...]
Our time in and around Achuapa
The next leg of our Nicaraguan trip took us to Achuapa, a small town to the West of Esteli. The co-operatives in this area produce organic and fair trade sesame seed oil, and export to commercial buyers, such as The Body Shop for use in cosmetics.
We had the opportunity to sit in on ‘La Asemblea’ [...]
Our first meeting in Nicaragua – UCA Miraflor, Esteli
After a long day in the car, Andrea and I arrived in Esteli in the North of Nicaragua. We were travelling with Julian, the Country Director for Raleigh International, a British organisation working in the region.
Our first producer meeting of the trip was UCA Miraflor (Union de Cooperativas Agropecurias de Miraflor) a Union of agricultural [...]
Update from the South by Sally Reith
I am increasingly stretching the boundaries of my role as SRO for the ‘South East’ with trips this month taking me to Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol as well as my well known destination of London.
I started my month with the CABE annual lecture where I met a number of key contacts who will hopefully be [...]
Ambassador Profile – Friday Nkumeh
1. How did you first hear about Shared Interest?
I heard about Shared Interest during the fresher’s fair at Northumbria University in 2008.
2. When did you join as an ambassador?
I joined after learning more about fair trade at a conference in London last year. Having been made aware at the fresher’s fair that Shared Interest promotes and enables [...]
Ambassador Action
This month those of you who were unable to attend the ambassador training sessions will receive the new USB ambassador resource pack, which has been designed following existing ambassador feedback and contains information relevant to the new strategic direction of the scheme. One of the things which we have created for you is an introductory [...]
Ambassador Question Time
How do you calculate the interest rates you charge to Shared Interest Customers?
The rate of interest charged depends on the cost of the funds we are lending (which we refer to as our prime rate) together with the risk assessment of the business to which we are lending. Our prime rate is different for each [...]