NEW BABY
Here is a rather belated picture of staff member Clare with the newest addition to the Fair Do’s family – baby Jude. Many of you will have seen Jude in the form of a rather large bump that everybody seemed to be predicting would be a boy – and they were right! He finally arrived on Saturday 5th June weighing 8lbs. Mum & baby are doing very well and pop into the shop every now and then; maybe you will be lucky enough to get a smile from the little man!
Jude is even modelling a fair trade babygro here; start them young!
Clare would like to thank you all for your well wishes during her pregnancy and since Jude’s arrival.
FAIR DO’S SALE
It’s that time of year again!
Fair Do’s Annual Sale will begin on
Saturday 21st August
and continue until
Saturday 11th September.
Drop in and grab a bargain on our vast range of fairly-traded crafts and beautiful clothing while stocks last!
EISTEDDFOD 2010
Dewch i ymweld a ni yn yr eisteddfod genedlaethol! Byddwn yn rhannu
unedau gyda Cymru Masnach Deg, rhif 201 a 202, dim ymhell o’r Pafiliwn.
Come and visit us at the national eisteddfod! We will be sharing units
with Fair Trade Wales, numbers 201 and 202, not far from the Pafiliwn.
FASHION SHOW 2010 REPORT
Calvary Baptist Church in Canton, Cardiff, played host to 120 eager fair trade at the Fair Do’s annual fashion on Saturday 22 May 2010 at 7.30pm. This was the tenth show put on by Fair Do’s, Cardiff’s first fair trade shop, and the second time Calvary Baptist has been the venue.
Models strutted their stuff wearing the latest fair trade fashion sourced from around the world – with clothing, accessories and jewelry from three continents.
There was also a special guest at the show: Leah Mitula of Denur Crafts. She spoke about the handmade jewelry produced by her company in Kenya, which offers employment opportunities to women, especially single parents. She told the audience how her craft brings freedom to many women, and enables their children to go to school, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty that many families are trapped in.
WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY
This year, World Fair Trade Day takes place on Saturday 8th May.
World Fair Trade Day is organised by the World Fair Trade Organisation and unites thousands of citizens, fair trade organisations, social and environmental movements, producers and consumers all around the planet in a common effort to support fair trade and trade justice for small producers.
If you are holding an event to promote Fair Trade, you can register at www.worldfairtradeday10.org. The site lists all registered events happening around the UK so why not browse through and see how you can keep on supporting fair trade this year.
STUNNING NEW ITEMS
These dresses have been causing quite a stir at Fair Do’s!
As a result of being on display in our window, we received many compliments about them, and several orders. This dress will be worn at a few weddings and on a couple of cruise ships this summer!
It is made by Nomads and is just one of the beautiful new items of clothing we now have in stock. Don’t forget you can see our full range at the fashion show on 22nd May!
10TH ANNUAL FASHION SHOW
Fair Do’s will once again be hosting a fair trade fashion show this year – our tenth one!
It will be held at Calvary Baptist Church, Canton on
Saturday 22nd May 2010 at 7.30pm
There will be lots of fabulous clothes, jewellery and accessories to see as well as purchase on the night. We will also have special guest Leah Mitula of Denur Crafts, Kenya speaking. (See this news item about Denur Crafts at Fair Do’s)
Tickets cost just £4.00 so be sure to get yours promptly as every previous year has been extremely popular.
If you would like to help us promote this event, then click here to download a copy of the poster.
FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT REPORT
We’ve had another successful Fairtrade Fortnight with many local schools and churches doing a roaring trade on dedicated stalls. The main push of the event being to encourage people to swap their cuppa for a fair trade cuppa, many of these stalls took the form of a coffee morning or tea party. Tea and biscuits were flying from our shelves and we could barely keep up!
Of course, many people already buy fairtrade tea or coffee in their weekly shop so we also encouraged them to swap another item. At the tea dance held by the Fairtrade Foundation in St David’s shopping centre, we had several interesting conversations with people who were surprised at the range of fairtrade products avilable – not just bananas, chocolate and coffee!
The highlight of the fortnight for Fair Do’s was the visit from the olive producers working for Zaytoun. Thomas Cazalis and Haitham Hasasneh spoke to a small but captivated audience in our shop on 2nd March about the challenges of producing olive oil and other products from Palestine. After this, they headed to Chapter Arts Centre for an olive tasting. Haitham had earlier commented that they were passionate about the quality of their products – somebody could buy olive oil once out of solidarity but if they didn’t like the taste they wouldn’t buy a second time. The tasting certainly proved that their efforts have paid off and the olive oil is delicious!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us during Fairtrade Fortnight and to those who have pledged to swap an item – you are making a real difference!
OUR FIRST DIRECT IMPORT
Fair Trade Egypt is a non-profit organisation that aims to empower and assist artisans all over Egypt. They sell unique handmade crafts and jewellery that cover many regions of the country. At Fair Do’s we have recently added goods from Fair Trade Egypt to our stock. This is the first time Fair Do’s has directly imported stock, bringing us ever closer to the producers themselves. This came about through a personal contact who visited Egypt and came back to us with the idea that we could buy from FTE as they did not currently have a UK representative – we are very honoured to be the first ones.
Come into the shop to see the beautiful new woven scarves and brass jewellery that have already been very popular with customers. We also have some slightly more unique pieces such as carvings made from buffalo horn.
DENUR CRAFTS
We are always looking for inspiring new additions to our range at Fair Do’s and we believe Denur Crafts are a very worthy organisation to support. Denur Crafts, Kenya operates as an informal group of women who create beautiful jewellery that is sold throughout Europe, Australia, Africa and Canada.
As Kenya does not have a public school system, parents must pay for their children to attend school. The vision of Denur Crafts is to give an income to mothers so their children can receive an education. All the women who are employed to make jewellery have school-aged children. Each member creates their own design and produces the jewellery using traditional methods from raw materials located in Kenya. Denur Crafts started in 1994 with just four women and has grown to a membership of thirty-eight.
Leah Mitula of Denur Crafts recently visited us at Fair Do’s with her son Dean who is studying at the University of Glamorgan.
Come into Fair Do’s and see our lovely range of handmade jewellery, perfect as gifts for all occasions.
NEW LINE OF BABY CLOTHING
This season we have an exciting new line at Fair Do’s. We have stocked babygros and clothing for some time, but this is our first range from a french fair trade company called Ideo.
Ideo are committed to fair trade, choosing small producers in developing areas and paying them a fair wage. They also use only ecological materials with a known origin to make their clothing.
These babygros are made with 100% organic cotton so not only are they ethically made and stylish, they’re kind to your baby’s skin too.
Pop into the shop to browse through this lovely new collection that is very reasonably priced. You can find out more about the principles of Ideo at their website – www.ideocollection.com
FAIR DO’S SAY ‘PANTS TO POVERTY’
Following a successful run in 2008, Fair Do’s are once again stocking a range from Pants to Poverty, the completely ethical and fairly-traded pants company.
This unique organisation buy their materials from a farmer-owned company in the cotton heartlands of India. The pants are then produced at an ethical factory in India which provides a fair wage for its workers, many of whom are women. Not only this but Pants to Poverty also fund special projects with income generated from the sales of these pants, such as the world’s first child-labour free cotton seed production project. Their claim that they are totally ethical ‘from grain to groin’ really does stand up!
This might already sound like a great product to you, but Fair Do’s goes even further. We have a specially commissioned range in the shop which includes a Welsh Dragon print and bilingual slogan! So come down to visit us at the shop and buy a unique gift for the man in your life.
To find out more about Pants to Poverty, visit their website by clicking here.
WELSH LANGUAGE CARDS – ALL THE WAY FROM AFRICA!
Fair Do’s are now offering a selection of Welsh language handmade cards from Rwanda. We have 3 designs – two proclaiming Happy Birthday (Pen-blwydd Hapus) and one Congratulations (Llongyfarchiadau).
The cards are made by an organisation called Cards from Africa, who provide employment for many 18-25 year olds living in Rwanda who were made orphans as a result of disease or the 1994 genocide. They make these beautiful cards by repulping waste paper from offices. Often these young people are responsible for their younger brothers and sisters, so making these cards provides a significantly better life for them all.
Not only is this a first for Fair Do’s – we have never before stocked Welsh language cards handmade in the South – but a first for Rwanda too. They told us it was an honour to be creating their first Welsh cards for us!
Cardiau Cymraeg – yr holl ffordd o Affrica
Mae Siopa Teg/Fair Do’s bellach yn cynnig detholiad o gardiau Cymraeg wedi ei gwneud â llaw o Rwanda. Mae gennym 3 cynllun (gweler isod) – dau yn dweud Pen-blwydd Hapus ac un yn dweud Llongyfarchiadau.
Gwneir y cardiau gan fudiad o’r enw Cards from Africa, sy’n cyflogi nifer o bobl 18 -25 oed sy’n byw yn Rwanda a wnaed yn amddifaid o ganlyniad i glefydau neu’r hil-laddiad yn 1994. Maen nhw’n gwneud y cardiau hyfryd hyn drwy ailgylchu papur gwastraff o swyddfeydd. Yn aml bydd y bobl ifanc hyn yn gofalu am frodyr a chwiorydd ifancach, felly mae’r gwaith o wneud y cardiau hyn yn gallu gwella ansawdd eu bywydau yn sylweddol.
Mae hyn nid yn unig yn ‘gyntaf’ i Siopa Teg/Fair Do’s – dydyn ni ddim wedi cadw cardiau Cymraeg wedi eu gwneud â llaw yn y De – ond i Rwanda hefyd. Maen nhw wedi dweud wrthym ei fod yn anrhydedd iddyn nhw greu eu cardiau cyntaf Cymraeg ar ein cyfer ni!
FAIR DO’S AT THE SENEDD
Elsa Cowie, a volunteer at Fair Do’s, went with Jan Tucker to a fairtrade breakfast at the Senedd to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2009. The event had special guests from Colombia, organised by The Co-operative Group – José Manuel Ocampo Lopez, a farmer belonging to a coffee co-operative and Mateo Correa who works for Colcafé. As well as enjoying the opportunity to meet the fair trade coffee growers, Elsa and Jan really enjoyed the fabulous fairtrade breakfast made by the National Assembly’s caterers!
Elsa and Jose Manuel at the Senedd
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN TO FT14 2009
Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 is almost upon us! But, there’s still time for you to get involved.
We have extra stock available at this time of year if you want to do a fair trade stall and lots of free resources – including new bilingual posters!
Fairtrade Fortnight is the perfect time to get involved and promote the message of fair trade…so what are you waiting for?
Or, if you haven’t got the time (or energy) to organise your own event – make sure you check out our events section to find out more about what’s happening locally during Fairtrade Fortnight.
Whatever you do…DO SOMETHING
GLOBAL CREDIT CRUNCH
Currently in the UK the news is swamped with stories of financial doom and gloom. We would like to say a special ‘thank you’ to our customers who have gone out of their way to continue supporting us. The producers represented by the products we sell feel the pressure of any shift in global economics in a very real way. It is all the more important at this time to buy fairly traded goods. When you shop at Fair Do’s you know that your money is supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people. On their behalf, thank you.
