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April 09, 2008
The first organic cotton harvest in Bangladesh
Maqsood Sinha from Waste Concern, Safia, Mr. Sharifur Rahma from Mohipur Agriculture Training
Institute (MATI) and Iftekhar Enayetullah from Waste Concern, one of People Tree’s pilot cotton projects in Bogra, Bangladesh
Bangladesh grows 2% of its cotton needs and People Tree is working to convert this into organic, Fair Trade cotton. Working closely with its organic cotton partner Agrocel last year we trained three agriculturalists from Bangladesh at Agrocel in India. These workers then returned to their areas and started the two pilot projects, one at Waste Concern in Bogra and the second at Swallows in Thanapara.
These pilot projects have been successful, resulting in a staple length of 28 mm (the same as our Indian organic cotton) which is great news and we are very much looking forward to scaling them up, bringing these techniques to farmers, protecting their health and the environment.
Masud Rana, Raihan Ali, Huda Mandol and Deb Kumar Nath from Swallows where the second organic cotton project was planted
The next challenge is to take the seeds out of the organic cotton and we decided to use a small hand powered ginning machine still used in the tribal areas of Bangladesh today.
One of the ginning machines that will be used to remove the seeds from the organic cotton.
Once the seeds have been taken out you only have 1/3 of the cotton weight left. The seeds are then saved for sewing in late June. When surplus seeds are available they provide a nutritious addition to the livestock’s feed.
The next challenge is spinning the fibre into yarn, dying it, weaving and finally tailoring the garments, all of which we are planning to do at Swallows in Thanapara, Bangladesh
Roksana shows Safia how the yarn is spun
Rumana peeps through freshly dyed yarn at Swallows
The thread will then be hand woven; the women will produce between 4-7m metres of fabric per day.
Finally the cloth will be tailored into finished garments. (Photo courtesy of Miki Alcalde)
Swallows also does beautiful traditional Nokshi Kantha embroidery
This is one of my favourites, sometimes we have to be a little more restrained when it comes to our fashion items.
These tunics made at Swallows will be available in our High Summer 2008 catalogue and have more subtle nokshi kantha embroidery on the straps and across the top band.
Safia at Swallows school which is funded from profits from the sale of Fair Trade products.
Profits from the sale of Fair Trade products from Swallows are reinvested into the handicraft centre to create jobs and training as well as into a school for 300 children from the local villages and a day care centre for the 60 preschool children of the women who work at the handicraft centre.
Safia and Liz Jones (above) and Mayumi Ishi (left) and Miki Alcalde (right), media friends who came to Bangladesh to document the first organic cotton harvest and learn more about Fair Trade.
Miki cheats during studies with nine year olds – still, he speaks better Bangla than me!
November 20, 2007
Fair Trade Chocolate
How it made me one of the coolest mums in the world… Second to Sophi Trunchell of course! (Sophi runs Divine chocolate, the deliciously Fair Trade chocolate company that works with Ghanaian cocoa farmers).
After organic cotton, organic and Fair Trade chocolate is People Tree Japan’s most successful product and earns me a lot of respect from my kids. Like most kids they LOVE chocolate – especially good chocolate. I’d use it as a treat, a bribe, an apology for being late back from work. In Japan everything comes in small portions and we designed our chocolate bars accordingly.
Living in Japan there would always be a stash of Fair Trade, organic chocolate. I’d melt it and smooth it on top of home made cakes, hang bars from the Christmas tree (well it was more of a potted plant decorated like a Christmas tree because I wasn’t comfortable up-rooting a tree some years), Chocolate left on the children’s breakfast plates to say ‘sorry, back soon’ when I’d go off travelling and lots to take for school friends – Fair Trade organic chocolate became synonymous with a happy, busy everyday family life.
Why I launched Japan’s first Fair Trade and organic chocolate bar?
When I arrived in Japan at the age of 25 –Valentines Day filled me with sadness. I was shocked that Valentines Day was all about women giving men chocolate – unromantically called ‘giri choco’ (obligation chocolate). Office ladies would diligently buy and distribute small chocolate portions to all of the men in their office – these men were generally more senior than them. Who had destroyed Valentines Day? Who had decided chocolate should be ‘used’ like this? Being an idealistic foreigner I decided I wanted to change it, launch a Fair Trade organic chocolate bar, and give unromantic chocolate companies a nudge in the right direction.
I’d read a lot about the struggle of cocoa and sugar farmers in the majority world – how prices where set at such a low level by a few large trading companies, that most farmers lived in absolute poverty despite the big profits their hard work generated for big chocolate brands.
I set about finding partners that could help us makea Fair Trade organic chocolate bar. Altertrade support farmers of sugar (and bananas – but we don’t use bananas in chocolate yet…mmm…that’s an idea!!?) in the Philippines when in the 70s the price of sugar crashed causing mass starvation amongst farmers. ATJ, a leading Fair Trade organisation, and members of the public in Japan organised massive relief and support to farmers. They are now a thriving Fair Trade community and make delicious muscavado sugarbrown and treacly and it’s full of nutrients and good for you too!
We then linked up with El Ceibo in Bolivia, a cocoa farmers co-operative with 38 co-operatives which include 800 famillies, Alto Beni one of the most remote places on earth. Farmers would walk for 5 hours carrying close to their body weight in coca beans on their back, before the cooperative invested in trucks to organise collections from their homesteads. With Fair Trade a good price and resale orders, came access to education for the farmer’s children and a thriving social network to help farmersstrengthen their communities. Today they jointly own a very successful business.
Once you have these two vital ingredients for chocolate, cocoa and sugar, you don’t need much else – but it takes more than just a big mixing bowl to make fine chocolate. Claro, one of the leading Swiss Fair Trade Organisations introduced me to Chocolat Behrain, the most environmentally-friendly chocolate factory in the world. Family run, it has systems that recycle its water, use low energy machinery and is a pioneer in organic and Fair Trade chocolate. It takes 1 month to thoroughly dry the muscovado sugar before it can be used for chocolate– they lay it out on dozens of huge trays in a chapel-sized drying room – nothing seems too much trouble for this team of Fair Trade chocolate visionaries. People Tree’s chocolate is slow chocolate.
Altertrade sugar farmer in the Philippines
El Ceibo – cocoa farmer photo and short caption message about the impact of Fair Trade chocolate
From left to right: Jost Ruegg - Key Account Manager, Chocolate Bernrain, me, AGBear Schumacher - CEO, Claro fair trade AG and Bendicht Witschi - Export Manager, Claro fair trade AG
Looking a right Charlie in the chocolate factory
Plastic bags over high heels too – new fashion inspiration?
The best Fair Trade and organic ingredients make the best chocolate.
Safia shows restraint – Very tempting to stick your finger in the chocolate and lick it.
… but the results are worth it
…delicious Fair Trade organic chocolate. I think I might change jobs...
Yoshi, People Tree Imports and Food Coordinator looks cute in the factory uniform.
The Politics of Chocolate
Last year People Tree teamed up with Chocolate Revolution in Japan to raise awareness of the unfair deal to cocoa farmers. This year; thanks to a lot of media coverage People Tree has been able to get new stockists to make Fair Trade, Organic chocolate much more available around Japan. Chocolate companies are starting to sit up and take notice of our disgust at forced child labour in cocoa plantations in West Africa; Also, the use of banned pesticides on cocoa plantations in the developing world effects the health of farmers and aren’t that good for us to eat either. People Tree surveyed chocolate companies ten years ago and we were largely fobbed off with “of course we don’t know where our cocoa and sugar is bought, we just buy it from a trader”. Thankfully the new movements in transparency and CSR will make saying that a thing of the past.
Growing up with chocolate
Being half Swiss, I love chocolate. My grandmother would let us eat it for breakfast every morning, bread in one hand and chocolate in the other. On birthdays as a child we played the chocolate game (whoever throws 2 sixes on a dice gets to eat chocolate, slowed down by a knife and fork); I play it today with my kids.
When I was 20 I ran a Valentine gorilla-grams Company part time during my lunch break and evenings that delivered chocolate and wine all over London – whilst working for a magazine full time. Chocolate has always been associated with fun and a daily luxury. So today, it is great to hear children pestering their parents in supermarkets and natural food stores for Fair Trade chocolate and writing essays and raps in praise of Fair Trade chocolate. I also received a wonderful book written by Naomi Poole on Fair Trade chocolate – there is a growing army of Fair Trade chocolate activists. Including a lot of mums too who want to put their chocolate habit to good use and spread the word for Fair Trade and organic chocolate.
October 30, 2007
Bangladesh - The land and people I love
I've been working in Bangladesh – probably my favorite country in the world. It was shocking to see so much land, homes and fields lost to the floods this year. We all expected the giant flood that comes as a ten year phenomenon to happen next year, not this. So now people are left wondering whether the cycle was ahead of itself or whether next year's will be even worse. But why worry about the future when there is so much to do now rebuilding homes and day to day living?
Even though the great rivers are worshipped for the rich mineral deposits they bring from the Himalayas, the politics of neighboring countries are intensifying the problems caused by climate change. In times of heavy rainfall or flooding India will use its dams to favour its own people and land redirecting excess water from its great dams into Bangladesh. And in times of drought when water is scarce Bangladesh will receive only a trickle. The politics of water are well underway and tensions will mount as rainfall patterns are disrupted due to climate change. In an agricultural country where people rely on fishing and farming water means life or death.
Kids play on the muddy banks of the river
A pristine environment
The ecology around our Fair Trade partner, Swallows in Northern Bangladesh is incredibly beautiful. It was so called because of the swallows that nest in the clay banks and swoop over the green village pathways. There are river dolphins and a million little crabs that scuttle about.
The people of the village live simply and sustainably. As the morning sun rises over the village, people are brushing their teeth with traditional twig of neem (better for your gums than a toothbrush and totally biodegradable – I can't help hoping that their children don't get taught to use a plastic toothbrush in the name of modernity!).
Ms Shinda walks to Swallows handicraft centre where she works 9-5pm preparing yarn and hand weaving cloth to be tailored into beautiful clothes like the Sarah dress. The benefits of working at the centre are profound, in a rural environment where there is little opportunity for women to work, she earns more than a garment factory worker in Dhaka, her living costs are less than half of those in the city, and she has the opportunity of other ways of earning income – including raising these lovely goats here – importantly she can also stay living with her family in this beautiful environment rather than in a city slum.
Ann Markley wears People Tree and shows how her dress started out as skeins of yarn.
A sneak preview of what's to come in summer 2008: - the fabric is hand woven and hand embroidered at Swallows
I love the people, the environment and the craft culture that transforms the community into an independent, proud and visionary place. Swallows is a rare place, but part of a growing movement to use handicrafts to promote livelihoods that are usually undermined by economic policy, industrialisation that puts capital before people and their needs. The people of Bangladesh are so kind and holistic in their thinking.
Bangladesh has a lot to teach the world, but recently it seems that its “care taker” government lacks confidence in its own people and intellectuals. The world has moved on. Bangladesh and its people hold many of the answers for sustainability. It is the time for multi stakeholder initiatives and approaches when we all work together for change. But confidence is needed in a nation that offers so much, but ends up comparing itself with big business and a world economy system gone mad.
Bangladesh people may need help up as one of the poorest nations in the world but the nation has made great strides in the last 20 years, in terms of literacy and development. It also qualifies as the happiest nation in the world, so clearly there are other benchmarks that determine the true prosperity of a nation.
August 24, 2007
Bangladeshi hand made paper!
Just a quick entry to say do take a look at this Our favourite illustrator Chris Haughton has written a great blog on how he comes up with his designs. Many of these are hand printed in Bangladesh on hand made paper, take a look! We don't just make clothing in Bangladesh we make handicrafts too!
August 22, 2007
The cost of global warming - more floods in Bangladesh too
As you may have seen on the news recently Bangladesh and has been devastated by recent flooding caused by unusually heavy monsoons across the region. Many of you have you have written to us, concerned for our producer groups in the effected areas and so I wanted to update you on the situation.
Flooded workshops and waterlogged looms at Priyoti Fabrics Group, Bangladesh
Village weaving workshops in Bangladesh, surrounded by flood water
As you will see from these pictures one particular weaving unit of ours was severely affected by the flooding. Priyoti Fabrics Group in Narsingdi (a member of our producer group Folk) found its workshop filled with water. With looms soaked, roads blocked and bridges collapsed it was impossible for them to finish their orders make their deliveries. The waters are now receding but the clean up operation will be huge and there is great risk from waterborne diseases across the region. 25 million are said to have been displaced by the waters.
Producers survey flood damage in Bangladesh
Families are struggling to find safe drinking water this presents a huge health risk for the children of Bangladesh. The World Health Organisation estimates that 30 million are at risk from diarreah, malaria and dengue fever across South Asia.
Childrens education is suffering too. Those schools which have not been destroyed by the floods are being used as shelter for those families who have lost their homes.
Local infrastructure has been hit hard. Houses, schools, roads and crops have been destroyed and it may take up to a year and a half to clean up. Peoples livelihoods have been swept away with the waters and a food shortage is feared. Many farmers cannot plant new crops until the waters have subsided and artisans cannot return to their looms until they are dry.
Map of Flood Water over Bangladesh
1. Artisan Hut: SM Cottage Weaving; Kumundini
2. Artisan Hut: Bangla Serai (embroidery)
3. Kumundini Ashiny; Kumundini Bridge
4. Proshika Folk (x2); Kumundini (x2)
5. Nakanyandang Kumundini (x2)
6. Dhaka: Artisan Hut Shati Tailoring; RA Tailoring; Bangla Serai
7. Narayanganj
8. Artisan Hut Shuvo Weaving
9. Folk Kn Colours
Here is a quick update for our producer groups
Artisan Hut – Production has been affected and roads have been blocked leaving producers unable to travel to deliver their goods and get supplies.
Folk – Health issues from dirty water are causing many problems and blocked roads are making getting the necessary aid very difficult. Many of Folk’s weavers work outside and this has been made impossible by the flooding. We also hear that many weavers have returned to their villages to help their families who have been seriously affected by the flood, naturally in these cases production has stopped completely.
Kumundini – Many of the Kumundini weavers’ houses have been inundated with flood water and their belongings ruined. There is a desperate need for food, clothing and medicines in these areas.
Another People Tree partner is the National Garment Workers Federation, a trade union that campaigns for the factory garment workers rights. Recently they wrote to us to explain how more than 50% of 2.5 million garment workers families have been affected as two thirds of the country is under water.
This is the kind of relief parcel that will be sent to families from the NGWF:
1. Rice – 10kg
2. Dal - 1kg
3. salt ½ kg
4. Onions 1 kg
5. Turmeric
6. Cayenne pepper
7. Mixed spice
8. Soap
9. Disinfection solution
10. Oil
11. Water purifying tablets
12. Water bag
13. Thread
To the value of 600Tk which is £4.40
People Tree’s NGO arm in Japan, Global Village, has sent US $5,000 towards immediate relief last week and work is underway.
September 29, 2006
Nappies, Floods, and Civil Unrest
Our travel logistics are crazy at the best of times, but this trip really took its toll and me and the others with me. By the end, I was knocked so flat with a high fever, that I went deaf for the day!
I've been in Bangladesh with the designers and producer support team to visit our producer groups. A week before our visit, in large parts of Dhaka, the capital, heavy rains had flooded the streets making them navigable only by boat. We were feeling quite grateful that the waters had subsided and we could get on with our work. Then a general strike was called by the Opposition.
A strike in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka, means that no one dares go out in a vehicle, as it is likely to get stoned and people pulled out and roughed up. (I've only broken the protocol once and took a risk, for the driver too, when I needed to come home to have a baby!)
But despite the obstacles, the trip was successful. Our trip to Swallows was especially worthwhile. We opened the Swallows Day Care Centre for 36 babies and toddlers, aged from 4 months to 5 years old, children of weavers, tailors and embroidery artisans. Up until now they had left their children with their mums at home, but many found this very difficult. There are lots of challenges, but the Day Care Centre is beautiful with six qualified teachers and assistants and mums pop in to breastfeed 3 times a day or more often in the case of the smaller babies.
People Tree Started working with Swallows about 10 years ago when we heard they were struggling. Orders had declined and the women were just sitting around with no work and no food. People Tree started product development of handwoven fabrics and embroidery. Within 3 years we were able to give work to 70 women. People Tree and Global Village in Japan already funds the running costs of the Swallows School that provides 300 children with access to education.
Nappies
In Bangladesh and in our natural state babies are 'dry' and aware of their bodily functions, and can communicate to their mums as young as nine months. Unbelievable, but it's true!! However, for reasons of hygiene you can't have babies bare-bottomed in the Day Care Centre so this has been a bit of a cultural change. I wish mine had been dry and searching for a toilet at nine months. I remember a 'putting-away-the-potty-party' with balloons at two for my daughter, Natalie. (She had those washable nappies, like we're using at Swallows, to dry them when traveling I used to wind them to catch them at the top of the window like curtains in the car!) They were more convenient than disposables. Where do you dispose of disposables in the pristine countryside?
The women were absolutely thrilled with the funds People Tree/Global Village (our Japanese NGO) had given them and thanks to Helen, Raihan and Guinea and the dedicated teaching team, I couldn't imagine a better start in life.
Mrs. Kushida leaves her son, Aktul Jul Haq, 2, at the Day Care Centre. She has two other older children, a son of 16 and a daughter of ten.
“I used to run off to work in a rush leaving my son with my mother, who is now very old. I used to worry so - there is a big dog nearby her place, so the little one wasn’t free to go out of the house. It was too dangerous.
“Now I have peace of mind. He really enjoys being at the Day Care Centre and on Fridays [a holiday] he begs me to bring him here! The Day Care Centre is a big help to us.”
August 21, 2006
Bombolulu Workshops, Kenya
I love Mombasa. It's really bustling and finally I am warm. Summer has come to Kenya. All around me the Bombolulu workshop artisans are rushing about and busy – some in wheelchairs, some on crutches. The atmosphere is dynamic and people stop to ask a question or two and explain how they are making things.
Bombolulu is in the city of Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya. The workshop, where People Tree produces some of our jewellery, was set up in 1969 as a rehabilitation centre. Thirty-seven years on and the workshop now provides training and work for over 100 adults who are either disabled to obtain the skills necessary to make jewellery, woodcarvings, leather goods or tailoring.
I must tell you about a lady I met named Alice Maundu, as she had such a tremendous effect on me. She is 35 years old and has been in a wheelchair since she was a child. She lost her legs due to polio and has 'soft bones' she says that meant she was unable to bear children of her own. Yet this didn't deter her from becoming a terrific mother, "I like children," she says. She adopted two children at age 1 and age 7, and regularly looks after her niece and her nephew during their school holidays, despite her severe disability. But how did she manage when they were little and juggling a full time job? "I hired a helper," she beams.
With such a disability Alice would have found it very difficult to provide for herself let alone live the full life that looking after children brings. She joined Bombolulu in 1993 and has since been making Fair Trade jewellery, where she earns decently by Kenyan standards. "I feel terrible when I see disabled people in the streets begging," she says. "I am so lucky to be here, safe, secure and with a chance to live a full life." Alice makes me think about a man I saw five years ago in Nairobi, who having suffered polio had lost his legs and had to propel himself on a tray with wheels, between the cars, selling bananas. The danger, the exhaust fumes and his courage, forced by need, will undoubtedly stay with me forever.
In Japan we talk about a barrier-free society – but in the developing world we have a long, long way to go. Not only can Alice and the other 150 fully-salaried artisans rely on a regular income but Bombolulu provides other benefits too. They provide housing for the most severely disabled, medical benefits and offer loans for higher education so that their children can continue their education after age 14.
I sit together with Peter, a 30 year old jewellery maker, who reminds me of a good friend from home. He's really charming! He has been working here for 10 years and is really eager to show me his workmanship and skills. When I admit I don't know what an 'anvil' is he laughs in surprise and patiently explains. He gets out a brass pendant, shaped like a leaf, and explains how using the anvil shapes the centre vein of the leaf. It's beautiful. Look out for it in the Spring/Summer collection next year.
If you'd like to support the Bombolulu artists right now then click here to check out some of their beautifully crafted jewellery.
August 16, 2006
Visiting Meru Herbs
Meru Herbs is situated on Mount Meru, a bumpy five-hour drive from Nairobi. As we jolt about and skirt around the pot holes, the driver, James Mwaniki, tells me this is a 'great' place for big snakes! The anaconda can hypnotise dogs and even swallow a goat – whole. The blog photo of me half consumed by an anaconda flashes ominously through my mind...
We started working with the farmers from Meru Herbs 10 years ago. They grow the most delicious hibiscus (carcade as it's known around here), camomile and lemongrass tea – all produced organically. The hibiscus flowers are voluptuous, rose red and the scent seduces you! It's absolutely wonderful.
A woman at Meru Herbs 'shelling' the hibiscus flowers by taking off the plump petals for drying to make tea.
The Nguuru Gakirwe water project was started in 1989 when Italian born Andrew Botta worked with local engineers they built an irrigation system in this drought prone area. Eighteen years on and it serves the 470 families of farmers who can enjoy access to water. This simple but effective engineering is pure genius as it has no automatic parts that could break and has stood the test of time, so rarely the case in development projects. The whole community pay for the water by employing over ten people to maintain it, and every family sends a member to clear out the sediment when the river is low.
Nguuru Gakirwe water project.
According to Paul Mucee, one of the herb farmers, all they could grow in these parts before the water project was created was millet and corn, because rain was so infrequent. 'With the chance of water for irrigation and access to Fair Trade markets I was able to treble my income,' says Paul. Success continues with his son recently graduating from the most prestigious technical college in engineering and now working for an alternative energy solar panel company.
Paul Mucee
I ask Paul if he is happy. 'Oh, I am happy. I used to live in confusion, not knowing how I might feed my family, but now I have direction and great hope. My calendar now follows the natural, organic cycles.'
Andrew, who is the most energetic and amazing seventy-something I have ever met, has created livelihoods for hundreds of people in this rural area with the water project. His friends may have thought him mad starting a project like this in the middle of nowhere, but he has helped to build a thriving community, to which roads, bridges and schooling have now finally found their way as well. Then I ask him about future challenges the farmers face. The climate is changing he says, because of global warming, we need to adopt 'drip irrigation' as it is a more efficient use of water. (This consists of a hose with holes in it, so that the water can drip through slowly.)
I visit the banana fields to see this method in action. The bananas will head for Nairobi, but the people of this community are able stay here - 'We have everything we need for a good life here,' the farmers tell me repeatedly.
August 10, 2006
'Make it Biashara Ya Haki, please!'
‘Biashara ya haki' is swahili for Fair Trade, and these words are being heard more and more in the rural areas of Kenya where I’ve been this week.
The Kenyan economy seems to be back on track. Children aged between 4-14yrs can receive free education and a newly established Community Development Fund now puts rural development at the top of the agenda, together with supporting farmer's prices.
However, there is still a long way to go. Fifty-six per cent of Kenyans live on less than US$1 a day and there is a constant threat of drought, which recently had the whole country abandon work for the day simply to pray for rain. It came. Water really is the new currency for propriety, the difference between life and death, essential to crops, to animals and the deciding factor in the hardship people suffer.
I've come to Kenya to work with People Tree's seven partner groups here, together with our handicraft designer Mayuko. I wanted to find out what effect low prices and machine production were having on the lives of kiondo basket artisans. The kiondo is a traditional Kenyan basket, used when a bride goes to her new family. Filled with agricultural tools and a little food, it signifies she is strong and ready to contribute to her new family.
For over twenty years export sales of kiondos have provided much needed income for rural Kenyan women who have few alternative ways to earn money during the 6 months when they are not farming. Today machine-produced kiondos are depriving them of their income and even those handmade kiondos that are made in Kenya are being sold on our high streets for as little as 50% less than a Fair Trade kiondo.
A Masai lady: Crafts of Africa is now internationally patenting kiondo designs to secure livelihoods of many people in Kenya.
This problem was discussed with Fair Trade members at a kiondo design and quality workshop which People Tree held in Nairobi. Agnes, a kiondo weaver that I spoke to, would like to earn US$3 for a day's work, the minimum wage set by the government but ignored by crafts traders. She, like many other weavers, explained how the middlemen offer very low prices for their goods. The women try to negotiate for a 'decent' price, but often sell bags for less than they cost to make. The women cannot wait for a better deal - they have no choice but to sell their work for less than the cost of production in order to feed their hungry children. According to them, the middlemen take advantage of their desperate poverty.
As the head of the Export Promotion Council in Nairobi tells us, 'This creates confusion in the market and prevents Fair Trade products getting the distribution they deserve.' She is keen to support best practice and encourage Fair Trade because it supports the governments aim to alleviate poverty.
As the workshop discussion continued people were excited to hear about the Fair Trade movement, and that increasingly people around the world want to buy products which are free of exploitation. We have stricter environmental legislation - why not regulation to protect people from exploitation? I tell the group about the Company Law Reform Bill in the UK (click here for more information about the Bill and what you can do to help) and how, in addition to Fair Trade, conventional trade will have to become more responsible.
People Tree is planning a Kiondo campaign to help kiondo basket weaving communities and we hope to be able to tell you more in mid-September!
Dancing with women from a kiondo basket making group.
August 03, 2006
Long time no see
It’s been a pretty busy couple of months, hence being so quiet on my blog. Not only have we moved house in Japan, with summer holidays the kids are back in the UK visiting grandparents and I’ve been based in the London office. It’s been a great opportunity to really catch up with the UK team, to do some face-to-face media interviews (look out for one in The Times this Saturday in the Body & Soul section) and a chance to catch up with friends in London too, which with my usual flying visits, I just don’t get a chance to do.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had regular meetings with our designers to plan out the Autumn/Winter collection for 2007 – when this year’s Autumn/Winter collection hasn’t even gone on sale yet! It’s always so exciting to see the beginnings of a whole new collection take shape, and imagine how the pieces will be brought to life by our different producer groups around the world.
Another fascinating meeting that I’ve had this week was with the incredible John Bird, the man who set up The Big Issue. It’s a big birthday for The Big Issue this year as well for People Tree, so we had lots of plans for joint birthday celebrations later in the year.
I’m off to Kenya on Sunday, to visit producers there, including running some quality control workshops at Bombolulu, the group who make the beautiful handbeaten metal jewellery in the People Tree collection. It’s a really inspiring project, set up to give job opportunities to people with physical disabilities, who in Kenya are often totally excluded from society and find it nearly impossible to secure work. Watch this space next week for the latest news from Bombolulu.
June 05, 2006
From Northern Laos - Luang Namth
I'm writing from the mountains of northern Laos. I just dropped my bag in my room after a fabulous day working with People Tree designers and silk and dye experts with ethnic Lanten people. We were last here staying at the Boat Landing Guest House at Christmas and there was the odd fairy light strung around a shrub or two - but to amazement through my window I notice that the surrounding gardens are alive with twinkling fireflies. It's rainy season here and the bugs are BIG.
Laos opened itself to the world only twenty years ago. The north is inhabited by hill tribes and ethnic minority people who are fighting to keep their cultures alive despite the onslaught of globalization. Some have been forced to move down from their remote villages by overseas governments worried about illegal opium production, others have moved to be near a road to town to get access to education and medical support.
People Tree is working to set up a Fair Trade handicraft project here in the north that will benefit the ethnic minority people and help them to develop their communities and get adequate income to send their children to school. Having been forced out of the forest on which they depended for their food and livelihood, traditional handicrafts production will make a big difference to their well-being and sustaining their cultures.
The Lanten people grow cotton organically between their rice and vegetable crops and handspin and handweave it on narrow handlooms, finally it is plunged into a vat of indigo plant dye and repeatedly dyed six times to produce a rich blue colour.
The textile making process is so pure and authentic - everyone is excited by it. But it is not enough to take pleasure in this area as a living museum - people need access to proper facilities and ways to meet their basic needs.
(If you are planning to travel overseas then do do eco-travel and support the local community like the Boat Landing does.)
May 15, 2006
Conditions for Workers in Garment Factories
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Multinationals are talking, but, according to the National Garment Workers Union, they are not doing much. "Companies make their own Codes of Conduct," he says, "which are not based on the local reality, so when monitored they miss the point. These codes are not used for development. What will make a big difference to workers' conditions and pay is a multi-stakeholder approach where garment workers, trade unions, factory owners and the buyers get together to discuss and set improvements together.
"That's one reason why Fair Trade interests me greatly - as the only example of this in practice. Fair Trade Standards have been decided by producers and Fair Trade Organisations together, and people become a focus of trade, not profit alone. Fair Trade can provide businesses with great learning in this area.
"Also, we are beginning to see the benefits of Fair Trade Companies applying pressure on mainstream business to change its harmful practices. Corporate Social Responsibility is an example of this consumer pressure and we have the Fair Trade Movement to thank for that."
As members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) become increasingly keen to bring in regulation so that they can compete on a level playing field - clearly the time has come for bold steps to be made to clean up the fashion industry.
Personally I would also like to see the Company Bill, which is now in discussion, go through. It aims to make directors criminally liable for their overseas activities - a factory worker's family could, in principle, take to court a company director who contracted a factory which collapsed and killed their daughter.
May 11, 2006
Roshina's Story
Location - Dhaka, Bangladesh
We are in the slums of Dhaka, where garment workers and their children make up 90% of the population.
Roshina welcomes us into her home, a room 6 by 6 foot. She is heavily pregnant and is on 12 weeks maternity leave from the factory, UNPAID. Her 6 year old son, Rashid (who incidentally shares my brother’s name) sits on her knee smiling. She talks of the hardship of living in these slums on stilts – the area floods during the rains. They share a four burner stove, two toilets and a single cubicle in which to wash your body with one hundred other people. Her room costs her just under half of her salary.
She used to have a salary of 2200 taka per month but is now living of her husbands' truck driving income. Her sister will come and live in the slum and take care of the baby, so she can go back to work, 9 weeks after giving birth.
If only the people who bought the clothes we make, knew of our struggle. Please tell them to buy more so I have more work and pay.
I’ve come with the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF). Garment workers are made to feel that companies cannot afford to pay a decent wage that allows them to live with some dignity, but we know this is not the case when you look at the huge profits made on the high street by fashion companies.
I start to tell Roshina about our work in Fair Trade to provide work in the rural areas for weavers, tailors, etc.
I would love to return to my village to live in a clean environment with my family, if there was work there.
The NGWF is campaigning for a minimum wage of 3000 taka - nearly twice the average wage, a one day holiday a week and an end to sexual harassment of workers. Nonetheless, the garment industry is a life line to Bangladeshi workers and to Bangladesh’s economy. No one wants tp kill the goose that lays the golden egg – but workers are very far indeed from making their fair share of the eggs. They explain how people struggle to survive, The average wage is 1700 taka per month (approx US$ 20 per month). Living costs are extremely high. And garment workers work between 12 and 14 hours each day and few get two days off every month.
Leaving the slums with a heavy heart at the inhumanity of it all, I visit a garment factory called Millennium Garments Ltd. A very charming factory manager introduces me to the Social Compliance Officer. We pour over their recent social audit, results are not good. It's a work in progress,
he says cheerfully.
He proudly shows me a new floor where a row of three shining white tiled toilets stand ready. Typically, only one of these three toilets has water, (water is used instead of toilet paper in Bangladesh - so it’s really critical!) And they are shared by three hundred people.
Pressure from consumers on fashion companies is finally getting through to subcontractors and the garment factories, but we have a long was to go yet. When I ask the factory manager if he thinks that Bangladesh's' minimum wage of 930 taka per month (which hasn't changed since 1994) is enough to live on, he says: Yes, people share a room and that way people can live without any problems.
I tell him that I have just come from the slums, he starts to look a little unsure of what he has just said…
March 01, 2006
Spring/Summer Collection out!
People Tree's catalogue is finally out! Producing all the products by hand in villages and marginalised communities around the world, at the same time as producing the People Tree catalogue takes precision co-ordination.
People often ask what is the hardest thing in running a Fair Trade fashion company and I'd have to say that it's ensuring the products are made in time for the launch of the catalogue. And cashflow — we pay producers 50% in advance on placing our order for products - often 8 months before we sell them! Of course the work doesn't stop there — we're constantly in touch with the producers, working alongside them to help give technical advice and ensure that environmental standards are met too.
But why pay producers in advance? The producers we work with are small groups and organisations and have difficulty getting a loan to buy the materials and working capital. If a loan is available the interest rate is often double what we would pay in Britain and can be as high as 40%. This means that even prompt payment from buyers in the Developed World can often make the difference of whether an individual producer gets paid promptly or not. That's why we often say in the Fair Trade movement that it's not only the price paid to the producer for the product but also the 'terms of trade' that make the difference to help build people sustainable livelihoods and strengthen small businesses and social projects in the villages.
When I am travelling in Bangladesh I often meet garment factory workers to find out how conventional fashion works. I meet people who have not been paid their wages on time and have three months overtime outstanding to them — and people who have been dismissed on the spot for asking for what is due to them. Unfair terms of trade, low prices and lack of buyer interest in basic human rights and safety standards are the background to the horrific fire in the cotton mill in Chittangong in Bangladesh that broke out last week in the middle of the night, trapping and killing an estimated 60 people, because the gates were locked.
For People Tree the advance payments are a central part of the Fair Trade relationship with producers, paying a fair price and commiting to a long term relationship.
So please do buy from the catalogue the moment it's out, as we're really rather tight on cash right now. Why? Well if you really want to know People Tree has paid 50% advances on Autumn/Winter '06 orders, and in June we'll be paying final balances on the earliest among them, and at the same time we'll be putting advance payments down on orders for next spring! Sorry if I'm making you feel dizzy — but running a Fair Trade fashion business is dizzy-making! (But you do get used to it).
February 17, 2006
A visit to Nepal
I'm writing from Nepal where this week I'm working with People Tree designers Sachiko and Masako.
We are here to run workshops on quality control and design, together with six amazing Fair Trade producer groups.
KTS Khadgi family and the People Tree team.
Kathmandu is one of my favourite cities in the world, all those beautiful red brick buildings - every time I'm here I wish I had a better camera and a rack of the next season's clothes. The place and the people are so beautiful, I could shoot the next catalogue's photography here.
Sadly, people are flooding into Kathmandu valley because of the Maoist conflict and to add to the problems of a burgeoning population, it hasn't rained since November (due to climate change) and many people are forced to spend an hour or two hours each day, collecting water to drink. Luckily Kumbeshwar Technical School (KTS), where we are staying, is close to a source of natural spring water.
KTS started in 1983 to help a large community of an untouchable caste of people called 'Street Sweepers' - a euphemism, as they were expected to clear the street sewers of human waste. In return they received left over food from houses around which they cleaned. They barely had clothes, and were often sick due to the poor quality and unhygienic food they ate and the squalid shacks they shared with livestock.
When KTS first opened a child care centre for the children of the street sweepers, after a few days the children stopped coming - their parents needed them to work and didn't see the point of them learning to read and write. Then the founders found the solution; they offered short vocational training courses in knitting, carpentry and carpet making to the parents. The parents learned a trade and improved their earnings. With more regular earnings they were able to provide regular meals for their families and, convinced by the power of learning from their own experience, they started to send their kids to attend classes.
Children at KTS's primary school.
Today, there are 237 children aged 3 - 12 years old who receive free education at the KTS school and 150 trainees from all over Nepal graduate each year. Some start their own carpentry businesses in their home villages and other experienced women knit sweaters for People Tree. The community is now largely integrated into mainstream society and although still slightly discriminated against they have social and economic independence. Some of their children have become office workers, others have started their own restaurants, and one recently became a nurse, which would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.
Photo of me (middle) with Sunita Giri (left) and Tirtha Tandukar (right), part-time knitters at KTS.
Thanks to People Tree customers choosing a hand made KTS knit, 450 people are earning a good livelihood; donations and profits from People Tree and KTS are now funding the running costs of the entire school with their funds left to support other community programmes like a crèche, and a children’s home - as sadly orphans are now starting to arrive from the areas of conflict.
Not surprisingly, with unemployment and under-employment running close to 50%, at every Fair Trade project I visit I am asked the same question, by everyone from craftspeople right up to senior management: "Is People Tree going to be increasing its orders this year?" Fair Trade is not only about good working conditions and a fair price. It is about making products that employ a lot of peoples' skills to make, so that each product bought can benefit as many people as possible.
At Get Paper - People Tree's hand made paper jewellery boxes are made of cotton fabric off cut waste from the garment factories, and provide much needed work for the cooperative members.
