At the time of writing, I do not know the amount raised from our Traidcraft Christmas coffee morning at the end of November. Thank you to everyone who came along or who helped on the day.
All profits from the coffee morning will be sent to Traidcraft Exchange who are more determined than ever to help vulnerable farmers and workers to get out of poverty through trade not aid— people like :
As you will probably remember, the Link had an information stall at the Country Fayre in September. We were pleased with the number of people who took an interest in the Link and asked questions. If anyone reading this would like to know more of the work of the Link, please do not hesitate to contact me; details of phone and email are at the foot of this report.
Many of you will remember meeting Stima, our local representative living in Urambo and who has been a stalwart working for the Link for at least 15 years. Without his support, many (probably none!) of the projects would have got off the ground in Nkokoto and the Folk Development College.
Our next meeting on 12th November is our AGM followed by Members’ Time. We have yet to decide what activity we shall undertake!
Liz Fallon from the Cotswold Posy Patch gave us an excellent demonstration on how to make a posy for our September gathering, the flowers being grown at her own farm. It was interesting to learn that the majority of flowers that we buy in a supermarket are grown abroad and treated with chemicals to make them last longer! She made it look easy to make a beautiful, natural bouquet and Gill Edgell was lucky enough to win it in the raffle.
Our talk in October on “Communities along the Upper Severn Estuary” began right back in the Ice Age and through to the present day and it is still evolving! A very thought-provoking address.
We are all looking forward to a WI Carol Service organised by Minchinhampton WI on Tuesday 3rd December in Minchinhampton Parish Church. It made us realise that Christmas will soon be with us!
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.
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!
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.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil that comes from the fruits of African palms. Palm oil is the most commonly produced vegetable oil and can be found in almost half of our everyday purchases such as soap, candles, lipstick, chocolate and biscuits to name a few.
To make way for palm oil plantations, huge areas of rainforest are cleared. In Indonesia alone, an area the size of two football pitches is lost every minute. As a result, the natural habitats of many wildlife species are destroyed and the fires started to clear land release high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is contributing to climate change.
We should not avoid palm oil altogether. It is a very efficient crop needing fewer fertilisers and less land in comparison to other crops such as soybean or coconut oil. It is also important to remember that the production of palm oil has provided jobs for millions of small holder farmers, helping them to earn more money and provide a better life for their families.
BUT...we need to buy products where the palm oil has been sourced sustainably ...which is where FairPalm comes in.
FairPalm is the world’s only fair trade, organic palm oil. FairPalm recognises that palm oil is a great crop for smallholder growers since it is fairly low maintenance and they work with the farmers to protect the environment whilst supporting the farmers.
FairPalm is a key ingredient in Traidcraft Clean & Fair bars of soap and the best selling cookies. Look out for them at our stalls.
Our next Sunday stall will be on Sunday November 17th after the 10am service.
Jackie Natt
01453 731018.
Traidcraft Christmas coffee morning
We are having a Traidcraft Christmas coffee morning on Friday November 22nd from 10am - 1pm in the Porch Room at Holy Trinity Minchinhampton. Christmas cards, gifts, advent calendars and all the usual groceries will be on sale.
Please come along and bring a friend. All welcome!!
We began our October meeting with a talk by the exceptional transplant swimmer Kelly Young, a local twenty-five year old who has won so many medals. We were spellbound as she took us through the whole story of her life beginning with the fact that she had had to have a liver transplant when she was four and a half months old. This was achieved by her mother donating a quarter of her liver to her daughter. This was so successful that Kelly took part in the Transplant Games at the age of eight.. Three years later she joined the swimming team and since then has achieved forty-six medals, many of them gold. We were all impressed by her determination and success and wish her continued success. Kelly then had to leave as she is a swimming instructor at Stroud Baths and she had a class of youngsters to teach and encourage.
After we had had tea we discussed details of our proposed Christmas Lunch which we hope to hold during the second week of December.
Diana Farn
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.
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.
