Fair World Project

On Facebook, there's a campaign to encourage major brands and companies to source Fair Trade products.
More information at www.fairworldproduct.org

Fairtrade Fashion

"Oh! Have you come to take it down already?" asked Jayne the Librarian. She sounded rather disappointed. They seem to have enjoyed playing host to the Fairtrade Fashion exhibition over the last two weeks. "The walls look very bare now," she said.
So now the pictures are all safely packed up and ready to head off to their next venue.

The Exhibition is Up!

I went up to the Library this morning with the parcel of pictures to put up for the photographic exhibition. They were delivered yesterday, to the shop where I used to work, by a courier who's been coming to Hay for a long time and knows that Mary Fellowes at Broad Street Books would get the parcel to the right person! He didn't want to take them back to the depot where they'd be flung around by the staff there despite the labels saying "Fragile".
Once there, we hit a snag - the pictures wouldn't go on the Library display board. But every problem is an opportunity for creative thinking, so we put up the exhibition on top of the bookshelves around the walls instead! Many thanks to Jayne (who wouldn't let me climb the ladder) and her assistant, and to the lady who gave artistic advice about the placing of the pictures (everyone's a critic!) - they really did look better after we'd moved them round.
Even as they were going up there was a lot of interest. A chap working on his laptop said he might have to move so he couldn't see one of the celebrity pictures, as it was taking his mind off his work! And he knew who the celebrities were - I have to confess my woeful ignorance of popular culture here! Another lady asked how long the exhibition would be on, so she could come back and look at it when we'd finished putting the pictures up.
And on the way home, I met a neighbour who actually used to know the photographer Trevor Leighton!

Photographic Exhibition

The photos have arrived!
Tomorrow I'll be hanging them at Hay Library for an exhibition that will last until 20th July.
Trevor Leighton, a photographer who has done work for such magazines as Vogue, has taken photos of models wearing Fairtrade cotton clothing for the Fairtrade Foundation. There are also pictures of the cotton producers in the exhibition.
The exhibition is currently touring Wales - it was at Crickhowell before it moved here.

Picnic Bliss!

And what a wonderful afternoon for a picnic it was! We had the wonderful Paul Hartley entertaining the kids with interactive co-operative games, Christina doing art with nature (which was a great success), a refreshment tent with Fairtrade teas and coffees and juice, a face painter who was working flat out for four hours, and a good time had by all!
I couldn't be there - I was supposed to be doing the five stick weaving, but I was ill in bed. And we couldn't manage to interest any of the local musicians in coming along with their guitars. Everyone else I've spoken to, though, has given it such glowing reviews! Bob from the Transition Towns group (our co-organisers - Hayfield Gardens is their initiative) was so enthused that he was talking about doing one every three months or so!

Planning a Picnic

It's always fun to plan a party - and in view of the weather this year, we're planning for every eventuality! We're borrowing a geodome and various tents just in case it rains. The Community Picnic is a joint effort with Transition Towns Hay, and will be held in the Hayfield Community Gardens, just on the edge of town, with amazing views of the river and castle. The date is Sunday 3rd July, from 12 noon to around 4.30pm. The important thing to remember is to bring a picnic, and there will be free activities on site including Paul Hartley's community games, Art with Nature with Christina Wright, five-stick weaving with Lesley Arrowsmith (or Matilda de Breos, as she's been persuaded to dress up in medieval costume - they didn't have to persuade very hard!). There will also be live music and Fairtrade teas, coffees and squash - and biscuits. And face painting, too.
During Hay Festival Tim Smit, from the Eden Project, visited the gardens, and formally opened their geodesic polydome.

The planning meeting was also looking back at our recent achievements. Julia ran a stall at the Africa Market in the Parish Hall during Hay Festival, with lots of Fairtrade stalls around her, and said it was good to have the presence there.
Those who went to the Smallholders Show at the Royal Welsh showground also said it was well worth while.
Barbara manned the tea tent at the community gardens for some of the time they were open during the Festival. She said it was quiet, but people did make their way up there, and there was a big meal one evening with veggies from the garden cooked in a giant cauldron.
Jo gave out Fairtrade directories before the talk at the Globe with Harriet Lamb - and Harriet Lamb also went to visit the Africa Market, and the This Is Rubbish meal up at the community gardens.
So, all in all, we've been quite a busy group recently!

Smallholders Show at the Royal Welsh

The Fairtrade table in the Green Horizons hall at the Smallholders' Show this year is a Powys wide initiative. Today, everyone manning the stall had come from Hay, but tomorrow there will be people from Brecon and elsewhere.
We had Fairtrade chocolate from the Co-op and Divine for people to try (always good for encouraging people to stop and chat), and some campaign material about cotton subsidies. It seems that the EU subsidise cotton growers in Greece and Spain to the tune of seven billion euros every year (!!) even though they only produce 2% of the world's cotton. We had letters addressed to each of the four Welsh MEPs, to encourage them to vote against continuing this subsidy. Meanwhile, cotton growers in West Africa can actually produce their cotton more cheaply, but cannot compete with the subsidised cotton from the EU and the United States. One lady took a whole bunch of these letters to pass around her ladies' group! Another lady praised the Co-op for their labelling after having done a fact-finding mission with her local WI.
It was also encouraging to find that almost all of the children who stopped at the stall said they either belonged to a Fairtrade school, or had recently done a Fairtrade project at school or with the Scouts. Three teachers took leaflets to find out more about their school becoming a Fairtrade school, too.
In fact, the majority of people who stopped to chat already knew about Fairtrade and tried to buy Fairtrade products, though there were still plenty who didn't know that the label went much beyond coffee, chocolate and bananas.
And as you can see from the picture above, it wasn't just humans who were interested in Fairtrade. Here are some local gnomes receiving their Fairtrade stickers!