Traidcraft Exchange are passionate about transforming world trade for the better. Both company and charity want to drastically improve the lives of vulnerable workers at the end of the value chain and protect the planet for generations to come. Traidcraft Exchange Hidden entrepreneurs project have helped Kenyan farmers trade out of poverty.
Ma’s Happy Life Kitchen believes in sustainable development for a sustainable future; the business was founded on strong, fair trade principles and their work focuses on supporting their diverse workforce’s welfare and development. Sustainably sourced from smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka, this tasty coconut milk has been lovingly squeezed from fresh coconuts to produce the smoothest coconut milk that’s bursting with flavour.
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Members gathered on September 4th after the summer break, eager to meet friends and to listen to the guest speaker from the Sue Ryder Foundation. Firstly, we were pleased to welcome a guest WI member from Cheshire who was in the area.
The President gave details of a number of County event—Christmas shopping trips, a Christmas concert in Cheltenham and a holiday next year to the Isle of Wight—all available to members.
The guest speaker, Beth Davis, began by giving a brief resume of Lady Sue Ryder, who had a great desire to help people who had suffered during the last war, especially those from Poland who had been in concentration camps. Over the years, this developed into caring for cancer patients and the hospices (there are 7 run by the Sue Ryder Foundation in the county) began to take shape. Nowadays, they care for all types of terminal illness. The one at Leckhampton is the only inpatient unit in Gloucestershire and has sixteen beds; they also have daycare facilities three days a week.
We have a varied programme for the future and we would welcome you to our W.I. which meets on the first Wednesday of the month in the Library, starting at 2pm. Come and make new friends over a cup of tea and chat!
Last year Traidcraft plc experienced a huge crisis and it was decided to downsize. There were deep concerns about the effect of downsizing on so many of their hardworking producers. The sister company Traidcraft Exchange stepped in and with the loyal support of people like you... they were able to raise over £250,000 to help vulnerable farmers and craft workers.
Traidcraft Exchange is now working with over 30 of the affected producer groups to give them individual support. Black Mamba and Swajan are just two of the groups.
Black Mamba
Black Mamba from Eswatini (Swaziland) makes delicious spicy fair trade sauces and chutneys. Traidcraft Exchange is now supporting them to sell 5,000 gift packs to the domestic and South African markets to replace the lost Traidcraft plc sales.
Swajan
Swajan from Bangladesh produces beautiful handicrafts using traditional techniques.
Thanks to your support, Traidcraft Exchange is now helping them to diversify their products with a new range of gift cards, cushions, purses and Christmas decorations which will be available later this year. Your support to the Traidcraft stalls means these people can continue to trade and use their skills to give them a more secure income. Thank you for continuing to support Traidcraft.
Our next Sunday stall will be on Sunday September 29th after the 10am service.
Jackie Natt 01453 731018.
Now that Lucky Mgeni is acting as our representative in Nkokoto, things have moved on at a great pace!
He has given us details of the three Nkokoto students who have qualified from Vumilia Secondary School with good GCE results and are moving on to 6th form secondary schools. (Vumilia only teaches from form 1 to form 4.) These three students, Julias Kwilasa, Senga Kalonga and Bertha Kwilasa were all students sponsored by the Link for their four years at Vumilia School and the Link will now pay their tuition, accommodation and stationery costs for the next two years while studying for their A levels.
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Our Spring Commons Edge Area Meeting was held on Tuesday 7th May in Box Village Hall. It was well attended with members from Minchinhampton, Box, Nailsworth and Woodchester WIs. We were pleased to see Sandie Baker, our WI Advisor, who informed us on the details of how the voting for the resolutions is organised.
Our speaker was Robin Burton from Stroud Wassail, who spoke on the history of song and entertained us with unaccompanied, tuneful snippets! He spoke of the demise of people enjoying singing themselves at work and play. Nowadays, people are “listeners” rather than “singers” and these days few children actually learn nursery rhymes. The older generation can still remember their nursery rhymes but are not so good at recalling modern music!
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Imagine if no matter how hard you worked today, you couldn't afford to put food on the table. For millions of people around the world, that's the reality they face. A fair income gives you freedom, security and hope for the future. It allows you to feed your family and educate your children.
That is the power of trade done well. But unfair trade amplifies poverty. It makes the rich richer and leaves the poor behind. Traidcraft Exchange exists to do two things...
- To support people to harness the benefits of trade.
- To fight against injustice in global trade.
It's a simple mission, but it is changing lives all over the world.
Traidcraft Exchange run development programmes across Africa and South Asia to support poor and vulnerable people to get a better deal from trade.
They are working to rescue and rehabilitate men, women and children from work under debt
bondage and forced labour conditions in northern Bangladesh and Madhya Pradesh, India. The project will create alternate avenues of income generation and establish people’s institutions that will focus on preventing exploitation.
Your support to the Traidcraft stalls means these people can work as part of a group, giving them a stronger voice and a more secure income. That means they can start to afford the things that many of us are lucky enough to take for granted.
Thank you for continuing to support Traidcraft. Our next Sunday stall will be on Sunday July 21st after the 10am service.
As we do not have a meeting or activity in August, it seems a long time since we have got together!
Our next meeting on 8th October is a talk by Rose Hewlett entitled “Living on the Edge”, about communities along the Upper Severn Estuary. Sounds very interesting and I must confess a subject I know nothing about.
We are hosting the Common’s Edge WI Group meeting on Monday 21st Oc-tober at 2pm for 2.30pm in Box Village Hall. I understand we will be sampling pickles and hope there will be recipes available for us to try.
The latest knitting project is making octopuses for prem babies. I love making these toys for the babies, but we all decided at Committee that the instructions looked very complicated. We have some excellent knitters in our Group, and they will have to be consulted.
Meetings at Box Village Hall are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 10am business, coffee at 10.30am followed by a speaker. Visitors are warmly welcomed at 10.30am - £3 including coffee.
Geraldine Ames, President.
At our June meeting, Steve Taylor spoke to us on “Our Burgundy Experi- ence”. Steve, and his wife Viv, spent 12 years in Burgundy renovating a very dilapidated farmhouse into an attractive and beautifully appointed, small hotel. It took an amazing amount of energy, time and artistic ability to achieve this. They also transformed a basic field into gardens complete with swimming pool! A very inspiring talk!
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Our speaker for the July meeting was Clive Dale. Clive used to tell stories to groups of young children in schools and churches and one day someonesuggested that he should write the stories for books. The talk was most amusing and entertaining. He read his story called ‘Clive the magic camel at the zoo’. All of his tales end with a moral for the children.
Our next meeting will be at 2pm on 4th September in the Library and we would be delighted to welcome any new members.
The weekly meetings of Box Art Group are starting again on Thursday 5 September, when members will be bringing along paintings, pictures or oth- er art souvenirs from their activities during the summer break. For the first time, the Group ran a stall in the craft tent at the Stratford Park Summer Fair in July and much interest was shown in the many paintings and cards on display. As there are a few vacancies at present, visitors were invited to leave their names and addresses so that details could be sent to them. We should be very pleased to welcome interested people to come along to one of our meetings at Box 
Village Hall on Thursdays between 1.45 and 4.15pm or perhaps join us for a cup of tea about 3pm.
We are also looking for people to sit for the portrait group in exchange for a cup of tea and a small fee. Do get in touch if you would like to join us for a friendly afternoon.
The meetings are very informal and our two tutors give help and advice when needed. Occasional workshops or talks are arranged and a competition (voluntary!) is set from time to time. We have an outing during the year and an opportunity to paint in the open air.
Our Annual Exhibition will be held at Box Village Hall on Friday to Sunday, 18 to 20 October, between 10am and 5pm. We do hope you will be able to come to this very popular annual event, which includes a coffee morning on Saturday 19 from 10 to 12 when you can "Meet the Artists".
For further information, please contact Jill on 886233, Hilary on 884163 or Ann on 832552.
At our last meeting, on June 5th, we had a most entertaining and educational talk about the Museum in The Park.
The speaker was often very amusing and extremely absorbing. Samples from the Museum’s archives were passed around for us to inspect and figure out their purpose.
Our next meeting will be at 2pm on July 3rd in the Library and new members are most welcome.
For those supporters not able to attend the AGM on April 26th, this is a synopsis of the Chairman’s report. Since the last AGM, the Link has had a challenging year.
Our focus during 2018/19 as always has been mainly on education: Secondary School Student Sponsorship: The school year started in January, with 49 new students from Nkokoto. The Link gave bikes to all 49 stu- dents from Nkokoto. We sponsor 8 new students a year (32 in total). Each year all sponsored children receive new uniforms, books, stationary, a book bag and shoes. When students complete Form 4 at Secondary school, they take the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination. Selected students may attend Advanced Level - Forms 5 and 6. The Link has sponsored 2 new students for the last 2 years (4 in total) by paying tuition fees, board and lodgings. Costs vary from school to school, depending on where the school is.
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