Fareham United Reformed Church

A HELPING HAND!
Did you know that Traidcraft’s delicious Fairtrade sugar from Mauritius is packed by hand?
Craft Aid's packing unit is deliberately labour intensive so it can provide employment for disabled workers, including some men and women who are deaf and speech-impaired. The 500g bags of sugar are packed, sealed, checked and then put into cartons, ready to be shipped.
Traidcraft was the very first buyer of sugar from Craft Aid in 1985. Today, Craft Aid ships out 120 containers per year. By working with the government of Mauritius, Craft Aid has invested in the packing plant, in metal detectors, in conveyor belts and in printers.
All of this provides employment for people like Johanne Martinel (pictured) who weighs the individual bags of sugar. Working on Traidcraft orders helps her to provide for her baby son.
Craft Aid's influence goes much further though. The first five sugar cooperatives in Mauritius had their FLO certification costs funded by Craft Aid. Soon, thirty-two of the 165 sugar co-ops on the island will be FLO certified. The Mauritian government has been so impressed by Fair Trade that they have set up a scheme to help sugar co-operatives obtain Fairtrade accreditation by providing soft loans for up to 75% of the cost of consultancy and application.
Helping Hands

Fairtrade in the UK is worth a staggering £1 billion a year - the largest Fairtrade market in the world. It's a fantastic achievement and one for which we thank God and for which churches can take a great deal of the credit.
But the wider availability of fair trade products in supermarkets has given some people the impression that somehow, the job is done and that we don't need to bother anymore.
They're wrong - but we know that mistaken belief can make life difficult for supporters of Traidcraft, so here are a few answers to some of the questions you might get asked:
Why is it better to buy from a Traidcraft stall/outlet than a supermarket?
Supermarkets are great at what they do - selling large volumes of products at very competitive prices but they can only work with Fairtrade certified food producers who can supply them in the volumes they need.
So they offer no opportunity to commodity producers who aren't yet at that level - but would like to be - or to the millions struggling to support themselves and their families making crafts, textiles, jewellery, ceramics, or paper and card products for which no internationally agreed Fairtrade standard yet exists.
Traidcraft can - and does! A large part of our effort is directed towards helping some of the poorest and most marginalized producers gain their share of the growing global fair trade market. Sales from Traidcraft stalls/outlets play a vital role in making that work possible.
How can supermarkets sell some Fairtrade products more cheaply than Traidcraft?
Between them, the four largest supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons) have around 75% of the UK grocery market. Tesco alone has a weekly turnover of around £1 billion - as much as the whole Fairtrade market in the UK for a year! Even the smaller supermarket chains are still very large compared to Traidcraft.
Their size means they can achieve economies of scale and efficiencies that smaller trading operations, like ours, just can't hope to match. They can afford to offer products at lower prices because their operating costs are, proportionately, much lower.
So you're asking supporters in the church to pay more?
In the case of a few products - yes. If you believe what we are doing is right, if you want to see more families given the opportunity to work their way out of poverty, more communities enjoy the sort of amenities we take for granted - clean water, a school, a clinic - then choosing, consciously, to buy from your Traidcraft outlet rather than the supermarket is the way to help.
Why does Traidcraft sell its products to the supermarkets?
Because Traidcraft was set up to change the way the world trades - and getting the mainstream to adopt fair trade is part of our mission.
Although the fair trade market has grown impressively in recent years, it is still only a tiny fraction of trade in the UK, let alone the world. If we can move the 'big boys' even a little way towards fairer trade, that will open up huge opportunities for many more producers.
And supermarkets offer Traidcraft access to a whole group of customers who might otherwise never come across fair trade products.
Why is the support of each individual so important to Traidcraft?
Because Traidcraft was created as a Christian response to poverty and the support of the churches has been critical to its growth and achievements - and will always be so.
Because consumption involves choice and the choices we make when we spend our money send powerful signals to government and business.
Because Christian living can, sometimes, involve sacrifice - and people who are prepared to be self-sacrificial make impressive role models for others.
Because by supporting Traidcraft you're making a difference - to all the families who can look forward to a brighter, better future because of what you do.

The Group continue to meetregularly to knit squares for blankets. The following emailhas been received from the Knit a Square organiser:

The three month old baby girl lying in the corner, lay listless. I stroked her perfect, tiny hand and with the little energy she had left, a smile flickered at the corner of her mouth.

In less than a month, these babies will still sleep on this same floor, a piece of old linoleum laid on the bare African soil. But the temperatures will have dropped and will continue to do so for winter in Soweto. I took this photograph yesterday, 30 March, 2010.

Scattered throughout Soweto, and all the informal settlements, are hundreds and hundreds of small creches like this fashioned out of whatever comes to hand, old window frames with no glass, stained carpet pieces, plywood, corrugated iron.

Our work is to get to as many as we can to wrap warm blankets around these babies and children, many of who are affected or infected by HIV/AIDS and most of who have lost or are losing their parents.
The squares are arriving abundantly. But we have outgrown our limited resources. We need a manager on the ground in South Africa. Someone who will organise DAILY, the sewing groups and distributions, who is familiar with the informal settlements and can source the networks to find these thousands of children. Ronda will always be involved in knit-a-square, but this is now an organisational role beyond that of the organic spread of volunteers; our wonderful family, their friends, church groups and our truly remarkable Sowetan volunteers.
We are serious about putting blankets around these children. About bringing joy to their sad eyes. About telling the world of their plight.
We know you are serious about sending us the knitted and crocheted squares to do this. But now we must ask you to help us further.
We need to raise a minimum, to start, of $3000 a month to incorporate in South Africa, hire a part-time manager and some additional facilities outside of Ronda's home and to achieve our common purpose in South Africa.

That is $3US a month from 1,000 of our 3,500 plus members. We would like to suggest that it becomes a membership fee, because that way you own what we are doing here as much as we all do. $36 per year is a small fee to pay to know that we are ALL achieving what we set out to do.

Our hope is to find a young enthusiastic and energetic South African who will, among other things, fund-raise here to cover other organizational costs. But we must have funds to do this.

These children, and thousands like them, rely on us now to keep them warm through the glass-less windows this winter and for years to come.

Moved by the plight of the people of Haiti, the congregation have been raising funds for the appeal launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee. The proceeds from a famine lunch, where almost 60 people sat down to soup and bread, and a lively auction have been added to the retiring collections taken over the past two weeks,resulting in £1000 being sent to the DEC to provide necessities for the suffering people.

An honest exploration of how we can enlarge our understanding of asylum seekers and refugees.

Saturday 12 September 2009
10 am to 1 pm

Trinity Church, Totton
Hazel Farm Road, Totton
Southampton SO40 8WU

Organised on behalf of the
Church & Society Group
Wessex Synod of the URC

For details of this conference and a booking form, please see the Church Secretary

It is estimated that there are 11.6 million orphans in sub-saharan Africa. 1.4 million live in South Africa.
They live in terrible poverty. They need love, shelter, food, education and warmth. Many children's charities are working hard to provide the first four. Charity knitting and crocheting can provide the last. Every single square that is sent is used in a blanket to keep an AIDS orphan or abandoned child warm.
For more information and to offer your help, please speak to Audrey Mann

The United Reformed Church has made its strong opposition to the new European Parliament seat held by the British National Party clear by starting a petition.

In a statement issued by the church's joint public issues team, church leaders labelled the seat win by BNP leader Nick Griffin a "disgrace" and have urged members to show solidarity over the matter by signing the petition.

Leaders say the document aims to "show the rest of the EU what we think of the racist BNP". It is due to be handed into the European Parliament on the day that Nick Griffin takes his seat.