Soup of Success; empowerment through cookies

Being a Fair Trade retailer, most of our products come from producer groups in developing countries.

However, we do support a couple of domestic projects; Soup of Success is one of these. Here’s how SOS describes itself:

3-mix cookie basket

The Soup Of Success Job & Life Skills Training Program is a not-for-profit, faith- and community-based program comprised of five main facets. Support Groups, Educational Modules, Career counselling, Mentoring & Hands-On job skills training in a small gourmet food business are all combined into an intensive five month program designed to assist local women who are dealing with difficult life situations to move forward and make positive changes in their life and career.

SOS is designed specifically for women who are struggling to get off of, or avoid having to go onto, public assistance. The participants in this program all have the desire and motivation to improve their situations and strive toward self-sufficiency.  They want to better their lives and that of their children.

SOS is based in Elkhart, IN, and with it’s parent group, Chruch Community Services assists more than 16,000 families each year.

Global Fayre has stocked SOS products (which are DELICIOUS by the way!) ever since we first started at a Farmers Market in Springfield, MO in the Spring of 2007. Their story, of empowering women to develop the skills they need for self-sufficiency, really resonates with our customers. It is also very in synch with the stories of the many producer groups that we purchase from. This is not about ‘just’ giving, it’s not about charity – it’s about helping people help themselves.

Our customers really appreciate that giving someone a gift of a cookie mix is a double gift; a gift to the recipient, of course, but a life-changing gift to the women who signed the cookie mix at SOS.

26.2 Miles 4 Africa

Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?!

It’s the title of our next First Friday event at Global Fayre.

When?: Friday September 4th 2009

Where?: Global Fayre, 324 S Campbell Ave, Springfield, Missouri

What?: Go to www.run4africa.info and find out more!

Introduction to Fair Trade, August 18th at Global Fayre

Being rabid readers of our newsletter (what? you don’t get our newsletter?! – then sign up here!) you will already know that we often give talks to community groups* about Fair Trade. (* community groups means anyone from pre-schoolers to Red Hat Ladies, churches, schools, volunteer groups).

Well this month we’re launching the first ‘open house’; an Introduction to Fair Trade for anyone who cares to come and listen (not just listen – we get plenty of interaction with these talks).

So – here’s the details:

Where: Global Fayre, 324 S Campbell Ave, Springfield MO 65806

When: August 18th, starting at 7pm (they usually last for around an hour)

Who: Anyone that wants to come!

What: Introduction to Fair Trade – starting at the basics of how Fair Trade started, and what it is all about

Why: Because it matters!

If you want more information, our contact details are:

www.globalfayre.com

info@globalfayre.com

417-873-9792

First Friday at Global Fayre….the morning after

We had a great time last night.

There was a good crowd, everyone was in a great mood – and we got a lot of people talking about Kiva too. We donated $1 for every purchase towards our next Kiva loan, and that raised $78. So we’ll sit down tomorrow to figure out which loans to make.

Zimbabwe…..signs of progress?

We have some great products in our store from Zimbabwe, and feel like we have a closer-than-average connection to that country through interactions with some of our favorite wholesaler/importers. It’s been particularly painful to watch as the country lurches between forward and backward steps as it makes it’s way (hopefully) towards democracy and an end to violence.

There was an interesting news item from the BBC today; they’ve been allowed back in Zimbabwe, after an absence of 8 years.

Maybe this is a sign of positive days ahead?

Fair Trade the White House – have you signed up yet?

We posted about this great campaign earlier in the year.

Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, if you agree that it is, visit the site again (www.FairTradetheWhiteHouse.com) and sign up.

But don’t stop there – pass the info on to your friends and ask them to do the same thing.

The growth of Fair Trade over recent years has been amazing, but the retailers/wholesalers/importers are just facilitators of this growth – the real drivers are consumers, people that make a difference by choosing to buy Fair Trade whenever they have that option, and asking for Fair Trade when they don’t have that option. It’s consumer demand that has encourage Cadbury’s to go Fair Trade with their leading brand, Milk Chocolate.

So, this campaign targets the highest profile consumers in the country; the occupants of the White House. Let them know that you support Fair Trade, and that you want them to support it too.

Thank you!

Hand-made Fair Trade cards from Bhaktapur in Nepal

We just got a beautiful new range of cards from our friends at Ganesh Himal Trading. Ganesh is a fellow member of the Fair Trade Federation and a founder member of the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Hand made cards from Bhaktapur

Hand-made Bhaktapur cards are made of Daphne Bark from managed forests in the hills of Nepal. Proceeds from the sales are used for community development activities under a program initiated by UNICEF/Nepal. The card are blank inside and measure 4.5 x 6 inches.

We plan to stock the cards in our downtown Springfield store and also in our online store.

The cards are made by a group called Bhaktapur Crafts, and proceeds from the cards are used to fund community development projects under a program developed by UNICEF/Nepal. We tried to find out more from the UNICEF website; a search on Bhaktapur brought up three (large) pdf’s – so if you’d like to read them just click here.

In terms of Nepal generally, here’s some more information from the UNICEF website:

Nepal is going through a sensitive and fluid political situation. The decade-long Maoist insurgency has taken a toll of about 13,000 lives. The conflict has hampered the delivery of basic services, restricted development assistance and caused a breakdown of family and community networks. Its heaviest impacts fall on women and children.

Issues facing children in Nepal

• More than 50,000 children die in Nepal each year, with malnutrition as the underlying cause for more than 60 per cent of these deaths.
• Half of the children in Nepal are underweight and three-fourths of the pregnant women are anaemic.
• The detection of a few cases of wild polio virus in 2005, following five years without any case, indicates the challenge for cross-border transmission along the border with India.
• Fifteen per cent of Nepal’s wells are contaminated by arsenic. Despite Nepal’s high overall coverage of accessibility to drinking water, access to improved water for deprived, disadvantaged communities and conflict-affected rural and fringe urban areas remains low.
• Two-thirds of Nepalis are still without access to toilets.
• Maternal mortality rates are high due to weak health systems with limited access to emergency obstetric care, skilled attendance and the overall poor status of women. Neonatal mortality rates are also unacceptably high due in part to lack of community awareness on appropriate care of the newborn.
• The conflict has had a significant impact on education. Forced closures of schools due to strikes have cut the school year in half in some areas. Teachers have been threatened, assaulted and even killed. Thousands of students have been taken from school for political indoctrination, and some have been recruited into the Maoist forces or militia.

Activities and results for children

• The Decentralized Action for Children and Women (DACAW) programme has proven effective through its strategy of strengthening community action. To guide the expansion of DACAW efforts, UNICEF has helped to conduct a mapping of disadvantaged groups covering 300,000 households in 237 villages and 8 municipalities.
• Nearly 60,000 boys and girls, 20 per cent from disadvantaged groups, are active in some 3,000 child clubs supported by UNICEF.
• A national measles campaign has immunized nearly 10 million children.
• In 2005, the World Health Organization validated the elimination of neo-natal tetanus from Nepal.
• A programme to de-worm children and provide vitamin A supplements is significantly reducing anaemia and malnutrition rates. The vitamin A effort is saving over 12,000 children’s lives and preventing another 2,000 from going blind every year.
• The ‘Welcome to School’ campaign initiated by UNICEF has greatly increased enrolment and literacy rates for girls and disadvantaged children, and has raised overall birth registration rates.
• UNICEF has helped to establish over 300 community-based paralegal committees to respond to issues like domestic violence.
• More than 1000 school-based child clubs are promoting sanitation and hygiene programmes in their communities.
• In 2005, UNICEF initiated with its partners a mechanism to monitor and report child rights violations in the context of armed conflict.

Fair Trade the White House

We’re really pleased to lend our support to a new campaign aimed at bringing Fair Trade to the White House.

Here’s what it is all about:

“Fair Trade the White House,” a grass-roots, nonpartisan coalition of fair trade organizations, vendors, retailers, schools, and individuals, are cordially inviting the First Lady to join the fair trade movement and declare the White House a “Fair Trade Home.” By declaring the White House a “Fair Trade Home,” Mrs. Obama can encourage households throughout America to continue refining their buying habits toward ethical consumption so that poverty, both in America and around the world, is reduced.

Think it’s a good idea? (of course you do!) – then check it out, sign up and start making a difference!

As an added bonus, you will find offers from Global Fayre and other supporters of the campaign. How cool is that?!

ICYIZERE:hope now available on DVD at Global Fayre

We recently went to a showing of ICYIZERE (pronounced E-CHEEZ-EH-REH) at The Moxie, and stayed afterwards to hear Patrick Mureithi talk about the film and his experiences in Rwanda (It was showing at the Moxie, an independant movie house in downtown Springfield).

Filmed over 3 years, ICYIZERE:hope is a documentary about a reconciliation workshop in Rwanda that brings together 10 survivors and 10 perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, with encouraging results. Through addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and conducting a series of group exercises that help to build trust, the workshop brings participates to a place where they realize that:

a) they are more similar than different

b) they are ALL the victim and the aggressor, and are all suffering from trauma

c) the most effective way to overcome their trauma is by making an effort to forgive each other and work toward rebuilding trust withint their communities.

One of the questions after the film was about whether this project, and the approach taken to reconciliation, could be applied in other situations. The answer, of course, is a resounding YES! As I listened I was struck by the similarity to my childhood memory of the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland. It was only when people (rather than politicians) started talking to each other, sharing experiences, that they started to break down the barriers between Catholics and Protestants and figure out how to work together for the sake of their collective community.

Patrick has shown real tenacity and determination in taking this project as far as he has. His next step is to take the film back to the Rwanda Film Festival (he showed an earlier version of it there last year). To assist with funding for this trip, copies of the DVD are now available, priced $20.

We are proud to support Patrick by selling copies of the DVD at Global Fayre. ALL proceeds will go towards funding his upcoming trip to Rwanda. So hurry on down and get your copy!

Have you made a Kiva loan yet?

We just got another repayment from our existing Kiva loans, so it was time to make some new loans from the funds we have with Kiva.

We chose two loans, each of $25.

The first ones was to Marie in Peru, who needs a $350 loan to buy sheep. The loan is to be repaid over 8 months. Here’s what Kiva had to say about Marie:

Maria Nieves is a very hardworking woman. She is a member of the Punta Sahuacasi Village Bank in the Azangaro Province in the Department of Puno. She is 56-years-old and lives with two children that she is responsible for. She lives in the Punta Sahuacasi Sector of Acochupa, and has a first grade education. Maria has been wokring with Movimiento Manuela Ramos for the past 3 years. She earns her living buying and selling small livestock (sheep). Her first loan was for 300 soles. She would like an additional loan at this time of 1000 soles, with which she plans to buy more livestock to sell at the fairs in her area. Maria Nieves tells us that she really enjoys the meetings because they allow her to share with her fellow members.

The second loan was to the San Nicolas group in Bolivia. They are a community bank seeking to raise $2,900.

The “San Nicolás” community bank is comprised of twelve members. Among them there is one man, a locksmith. The San Nicolás community bank members entered their fifth loan cycle. They have met all of the obligations agreed upon in the contract they signed with Agrocapital.  Many of the members work as crafts people. Some of them weave blankets, make macrame, and sell supplies on credit and for cash. Some of the members have fixed stalls in different fairs in El Alto. The most important, and where most of them assemble, is the 16th of July fair. They sell products they make themselves or resell products at low prices. They need a loan to augment their working capital and stock their merchandise. The competition that they have in the sector where they work is open for a good sale because they are far from the center of the city. The women and neighbors prefer to do their marketing in the same zone. Because they rely on daily fairs, it is easier to move their products and get better income. This group is in its fifth loan cycle. The Agrocapital foundation trusts them because they make their payments responsibly and on time.

Have you made a Kiva loan yet? If not, click on the link below……it might not change your life, but it may well change the life of the person you make the loan to.