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.
» Sri Lankan Fair Trade rubber project
Kitman is 67 years old and still doing a full-time job. Since he started working, he has been a rubber tapper on the Frocester Plantation in Sri Lanka.
By local standards he is a successful man: all of his seven sons have found work in the capital Colombo (some two hours away by bus). The eldest is in charge of a small business, two have become tailors, two work as drivers, two are employed as shop assistants. One of his daughters is a teacher, the other works as a rubber tapper on the same plantation as her father.
With their joint savings Kitman has managed to improve the basic accommodation provided by the plantation the extent that the basic structure of what once was called battery housing is hardly noticeable.
The house is at presently occupied by nine people: Kitman and his wife, three of his daughters in law and two grandchildren, as well as his daughters.
The house had one major drawback - there was no running water. This has to be fetched from an open well, 100 yards across the village road. According to the medical officer of the plantation, many people in the area suffer from dysentery and other water-borne diseases as a result of the lack of a safe water supply.
This is where our new fair trade rubber project came in. In an agreement with the plantation owners Fair Deal Trading ordered rubber for its ETHLETIC sneakers and paid a Fair Trade premium of 0.50 EUR per KG of rubber, then, the management and the workers established a Fair Trade Welfare Society and jointly decided how this money should be spent.
One project on which the money was spent was the installation of a pump and a piping system, so that 20 households around the well will each got a tap in front of their homes. Kitman’s household is one of them. The other major Fair Trade project agreed was the restoration of a common room for the workers, a canteen area and a unit with sanitary toilets and a place where workers (mostly women) can change into their working clothes and keep food safely. All of these projects were paid for by fair trade premiums and there will be many more to come that will improve the living and working conditions of workers and their families.