In celebration of Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, JustShare held a
Fairtrade Wine-Tasting and Carpet Sale at St Mary-le-Bow Church
on Monday 23rd February 2009, 6.30pm.
Around 40 people attended to taste the Fairtrade Wine, admire and buy carpets handwoven in Afghanistan under Afghan Action, learn more about Fairtrade, network and enjoy themselves.
The wine-tasting was led by La Riojana, the world’s largest producer of organic Fairtrade wines with over 3 million litres certified annually. Patricio Angonoa of La Riojana spoke of the real impact of Fairtrade in northern Argentina, where farmers now benefit from clean drinking water, a school and a clinic as well as technical assistance, access to credit and a guaranteed fair price for their grapes. See http://www.lariojana.com.ar/
The carpet sale was managed by Afghan Action, a UK registered charity which opened a training school in Kabul in 2005 and since then has provided 350 young men and women with education and training in traditional carpet-making, employing 100 of them in its ethical factory. The beautiful, unique carpets they weave were available to buy, and Chris Beales, founder of Afghan Action, can also take orders. See www.afghanaction.com
We were very grateful to La Riojana, Afghan Action, the Co-operative (who generously provided Fairtrade nibbles) and Waitrose Barbican (who generously gave us a case of Fairtrade Wine for our business card raffle) for their support.