Here are just a few of our valued producers, and a little bit about them and how they have been affected by Fair Trade working. Click on a name to see the full story:
- Brazia - How Fairtrade wages benefit workers
- Khan Family - How Fairtrade premiums pay for workers health care
- Bijad - How Fairtrade Premiums pay for Micro-credit loans
- Kadir Ensure - How Fairtrade funds micro-credit
- Kitman - Sri Lankan Fair Trade rubber project
- Shymala - Fair trade rubber tapping in South India
- Sameena Nyaz - How Fairtrade Premiums help pay for healthcare
- Gollapalli Nampalli - Organic Cotton Growing in India
- Iramma Ramappa Bangari - Organic Cotton Growing in India
- Mr Babu - Fair Trade pension project for rubber tappers
- Mr. Dadmanabhan - Health insurance from the Fair trade Fund
- Ms. Saradha - An operation paid for by Fair Trade premiums
- Rezwan Waris - How Fair Trade Premiums pay for Micro-credit
- Premavati and other Tsunami Victims - Greentips™ Rubber Band Balls »
- Mr Sadasivan - Wedding costs help from Fair Trade premiums in South India
To find out more about the making of Fair Trade Footballs, see our video on YouTube.
» Greentips™ Rubber Band Balls
- Assembled by people effected by the great Tsunami in Sri Lanka
Currently our Greentips ™ rubber band balls are being put together in Rangit (our local consultant’s) office but this is a long way for the workers to travel too so soon the ball making will shift to the village hall in a new settlement being built for people that lost their homes in the Tsunami. The 12- 15 women working to put the balls together work in silence and only agreed to have a radio bought in when the war in Sri Lanka was officially declared over.
To make a rubber band ball four equal portions of each colour band are weighed on a letter scale. Strangely yellow rubber bands are slightly lighter than the other colours which makes calculating tricky. When each ball is finished it is recorded against it’s makers name.
The fastest woman is Premavati (pictured) who looks much older than her 55 years, she lost her home in the Tsunami and she was at home in her village, Egodanyana, when the Tsunami struck. One of her sons was also in the house sleeping, when her neighbours who had seen the wave in the distance, alerted her and both she and her son ran to safety. They saved themselves but lost their home and almost all of their possessions.
They now live in a newly built village called Urannagodawatta where each home was allotted by lottery. Premavati is very happy with her No 47, a corner house on the main street. Since moving in almost six months ago, a series of plants has taken hold in the garden and a small village shop is turning into a focal point. The main road usually serves as an improvised cricket ground with a banana-leave stalk for wickets, almost every house has raised a flag amidst tons of laundry hanging out to dry and there is a constant coming and going at the hand pumps. The first test of this multi-ethnic community passed without trouble; the few Muslim families refrained from slaughtering goats on Eid which might have upset their Buddhist neighbours.