Sunderland Fairtrade Festival

Thank you to Jan, Judith and Pat, three Ambassadors who held a very successful event at the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens in October.  The event attended by 1,357 local fair trade enthusiasts was organised by Sunderland Partnership which celebrated four years as a registered Fairtrade City.

To read more please click here.

Call for more Ambassadors in Edinburgh

Although we have a strong membership in Edinburgh we have very few active Ambassadors in the locality so when we were invited to the annual volunteer recruitment event we jumped at the chance. The event took place in St Paul’s and St George’s Church on York Place, a spectacular light and airy venue in an excellent location. Volunteer Manager, Rachel Norman went along to the event with Kelly one of our Newcastle based volunteers. 

To read more please click here.

Fairtrade Supporters Conference

On the 15th October I joined a number of other fair trade organisations, including Shared Interest customers Zaytoun, Liberation, Equal Exchange and Tropical Wholefoods, for the Fairtrade Foundation’s Annual Supporters Conference.  This year the event was held in Birmingham, a pleasant change from its usual home of London, and attracted around 250 fair trade campaigners and supporters.

I picked up a campaigner Action Guide for 2012 which is packed with ideas and inspiration for a whole year of activities, events and actions for Fairtrade next year.  Although Fairtrade Fortnight will continue to play a key role there are ideas for incorporating Fairtrade into year round celebrations, and of course these will also be opportunities for Shared Interest activity too.  You can download the Action Guide from the Fairtrade Foundation and perhaps you may want to keep in touch with your local Fairtrade Group to find out how you can include Shared Interest in their plans for 2012.

The conference was, as always, a fantastic opportunity to meet active fair trade campaigners and our Shared Interest stall was swamped.  People stopped by to say hello, including the recent winners of the Outstanding Achievement Award, Bristol Fairtrade, to introduce themselves and to request more information on Shared Interest.  We had many conversations with groups looking for a speaker or stall holder from Shared Interest.  We’ll be in touch if there are opportunities in your area and if you haven’t already you may want to introduce yourself to your local Fairtrade Group, if you have difficulty doing this please get in touch and we’ll see if we can support you.  By Sally Reith

Coffee producer thanks investors for their support

We were privileged to have a visit from Alvaro a representative of Coocafe in October.  Coocafe is a consortium that comprises of 10 coffee cooperatives which represents 6200 coffee farmers and their families in Costa Rica.     Account manager Edwin, originally from Peru translated as Alvaro explained the massive impact that the Shared Interest facility had on the coffee farmers.  His visit was extremely informative and demonstrated how UK investors can significantly change the lives of Fair trade producers.

Seven Ambassador events in One World Week

One World Week is an annual opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to come together to learn about global justice, to spread that learning and to use it to take action for justice locally and globally. As part of One World Week,  Shared Interest Ambassadors attended seven events across the country spanning Worthing to Cardiff. We would like to extend our thanks to those Ambassadors and to encourage everyone to keep an eye out for One world Week activities in their local area next year.

Tyne Bridge Zip Slide For Shared Interest Foundation

27 courageous (and several terrified) individuals jumped off the Tyne Bridge to travel 230 metres at 25 miles per hour from Newcastle to Gateshead in support of farmers and artisans in Africa and Latin America, To read more please click here.

Dates for your diary

UN International Year of Co-operatives 2012

The United Nations has designated 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives.

Theme: Co-operative enterprises build a better world

http://www.2012.coop/

http://www.uk.coop/2012/

Fairtrade Fortnight 2012: 27th Feb – 11th March 2012
Theme: Take a Step in 2012
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/campaigns/take_a_step_in_2012.aspx

Co-operatives Fortnight 2012: 23rd June – 7th July 2012 (including International Day of Co-operatives 7th July 2012)
Theme: tbc
http://www.uk.coop/fortnight

Coming in the next issue

• New promotional film featuring investors 
• New resources for Ambassadors
• Oxford Ambassador recruitment