Author Archive
How you can provide hope for Haiti
We have all seen the horrific results of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti without warning.
The Shared Interest Foundation Livelihood Security Fund was established in 2009 to assist Fairtrade craft makers and farmers during disasters. The fund helps to rebuild businesses and communities.
Haiti based Shared Interest customers Comite Artisanal Haitien (CAH), who work with 180 [...]
Panic in Pakistan
On 4 January 2010 the Hunza District of Pakistan was hit by a devastating landslide. Two villages, including Atta Abad, were forced into the Hunza River. Parts of the main road between Pakistan and China have been destroyed and remaining debris is now blocking the course of the river, which could lead to severe [...]
Philippines, Haiti and Pakistan….what do they have in common?
Many of us over the festive period were spending time with loved ones, snuggling up on the sofa with the new DVD we got for Christmas and indulging in way too much food and wine. While others all around the globe were struck, without warning by landslides, typhoons and earthquakes.
Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan have [...]
Cards From Africa, a Fair Trade Success
As I set foot inside Cards from Africa, I was immersed into a bustling environment of people sitting around wooden tables, gluing, cutting, bending and laughing as they hand-make each card.
The results are beautiful but as I sat and chatted with a group of ladies at one table I soon realised that their stories of [...]
Business Training for Rwandan Fair Trade Producers
During a busy 10 days in Rwanda Andrea Wilkinson visited six producer organisations, met several stakeholders of the project, presented at the trainer graduation day and saw 5,000 trees that had been planted as a result of the environmental training by one of the producer groups.
“The evaluation trip was a great success, it was incredibly [...]
Holiday Prize offered for £1,000 Challenge
Would you like to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world and see first hand the impact that fair trade has on craft producers and farmers?
By entering our £1,000 Challenge you will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a Meet the People fair trade holiday to Peru, Kenya or [...]
Carving a fair living
Today Joan and I are hopping on a local bus and heading into the heart of Rwanda to visit COPABU (Coopertive du Producteurs Artisans de Butare). This is the final organisation that we will visit during this evaluation trip and it sounds like they have really taken the training on board.
The group is the first [...]
Cards from Africa
Well after a long day yesterday – 12 hours of report writing and working through baselines, evaluation forms and training reports – I was more than happy to be out and about visiting producers again today.
We set off bright and early, around 8am to visit the first group of the day, Cards from Africa. I [...]
Banana Wine and Mushrooms
Well this morning I woke up bright and early, with the sun shining over the hills of Rwanda.
Today I am setting off to carry out an evaluation of all of our tier one organisations (those exporting their products) with Joan Karanja, Regional Director of COFTA.
Yesterday was an exciting day for us, as we heard directly [...]
Return to Rwanda
Well here I am back in Rwanda, seeing the final stage of our first year of training come to life; and what a year it has been.
We – Shared Interest Foundation and COFTA (Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa) thanks to the Big Lottery Fund – have trained 60 participants from 30 organisations throughout Rwanda [...]