Fairtrade Fortnight Part 2

The end of another successful Fairtrade Fortnight is drawing to a close in Lewisham.

The fashion show at the Albany last Friday was packed out and a huge success. It was billed as an ethical fashion show, so in addition to some of the bigger fairtrade companies such as Traidcraft and Think Fairtrade, there were also a number of local designers whose products were in some way ethical. Mela Boev, Rezia Wahid and Inkeri Medley are all based at Cockpit Arts. While the first two produce unique handwoven garments, Inkeri specialises in transforming second hand clothes into new items under TRAID's Re-made label. Other local designers included Fathema Wahid, Mankai Saxons, Chelline International Fashions and Robert Clayton. The clothes were modelled by students from the LABAN and other volunteers. Well done to Peter, Shola and all those who put so much work into it.

Last night I went to a reception to promote fairtrade to local business at the town hall. Although there weren't as many local businesses there as we had hoped, Ladywell ward was very well represented, with Brockley Kitchen doing the catering and Lloyd from Brockley Kitchen speaking about why fairtrade was good business for him. Clement from Cafe Neu and John from Moonbow Jakes were also there. There were also speakers from the Fairtrade Foundation and Sher Ghazi, director of a Pakistani company that grows the only fairtrade-certified apricots in the world gave an inspiring talk. These apricots are among the Traidcraft food items that I sell to other teachers at breaktime at work, so it was interesting to see where they were produced and how fairtrade has helped farmers send their children to school, invest in better tools, water storage etc. More info here.