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 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!

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.

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 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.

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!

There is still plenty of time before then to buy your fair trade Easter eggs and other chocolate goodies in the shop! We also have a lovely selection of wooden crosses and pendants to celebrate the season.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and reps a Happy Easter and to thank you once again for your support.

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.

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!

The theme of FT14 this year is ‘The Big Swap’. We are all being encouraged to swap one of our everyday items for a fair trade item – in particular, tea. In the UK we drink 165 million cups of tea a day and just 10% of these are currently fair trade so a significant number of tea pickers are still not getting a fair deal.

The tea dance aims to promote fair trade tea – there will be samples to try out while you enjoy the dance displays and join in the lessons yourself!

The event takes place on Saturday 27th February from 11am to 3pm and is completely free. We’d love to see you there – just head for the area outside Marks & Spencer and Debenhams.

For more information, visit www.thebigswap.org.uk or www.fairtradewales.com