WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY - DUBAI, UAE
This years World Fair Trade Organization campaign was 'Fairtrade Innovates',
I am very grateful to the amazing M.E.S.H team and the ever graceful Moon Sharma for their time, love and hospitality during my visit to Dehli mid April 19.
It was a dream come true to final land in the native country of my parents birth, India.
I arrived in Dehli and was greeted by a beautiful warm evening.
What followed was one of the most memorable weeks of my life.
I met distant family and visited two World Fair Trade Certified Organizations, M.E.S.H and Tara Projects.
Many thanks to Mathew K and Ms Moon Sharma for their time.
During the final week of June I traveled to Thailand to visit Sister Louise of the Good Shepherd Sisters Bangkok, Thailand.
Many thanks to Sister Louise for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk about her pioneering work.
In a recently restored building in one of one of the oldest pats of Bangkok, the Heritage Craft Shop and Café is a beautiful respite from the heat and a wonderful place to conduct to some fair trade retail therapy.
Conveniently located in the old city of Bangkok near (Rattanakosin Island).
The Heritage Craft and Cafe is a treasure trove of lovingly hand crafted fair trade gifts have been selected by its founder Mr Stephen Salmon.
Highly recommended the gorgeous interior has been lovingly restored.
The cafe serves freshly brewed fair-trade coffee or tea and yummy chocolate cake.
I had the honour and privilege of visiting Mr Salmon again and thank him for his time.
This July I traveled to the UK and visited the London Textile Fair with my dear friend Sunita.
I attended the UK leg of the Social Entrepreneurship Programme in
London with the Badiri Academy, NAMA and the School for Social Entrepreneurs London and Cornwall.
Many thanks to all the guest speakers and the NAMA and SSE's teams for their support, expertise and wisdom.
This June I collapsed at the end of Ramadan and required urgent IVs for iron, glucose and vitamins. Betathalasemia minor is pain!
During the final week of June I traveled to Thailand to visit Sister Louise of the Good Shepherd Sisters Bangkok and Mr Stephen Salmon of the Heritage Crafts and Cafe, (ThaiCraft) Bangkok, Thailand.
Many thanks to Sister Louise and Mrs Salmon for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk about their pioneering work.
I had the good fortune to travel to Oxford during my visit to the United Kingdom.
I am very grateful to Clare and Miranda for taking time out of their busy schedules to conduct interviews with me.
I look forward to returning to beautiful Oxford soon.
I had the good fortune to visit Bruce Crowther, MBE during November 2016 and spent a morning learning how to produce fair trade chocolate bean to bar.
Fredrick is a member of the Kuapa Kukoo Farmers Cooperative Ghana, and it was wonderful feeling knowing he had grown the cocoa for our chocolate.
We began our chocolate making at the crack of dawn and I was nervous not to make any mistakes and spoil Bruce's batch of chocolate.
I have posted all the photographs chronologically as we produced the chocolate.
I spent most of August 2016 with my siblings in London and mustered the energy to board a train to historical York to visit Shared Earth and talk with founder and owner Jeremy Piercy.
Many thanks to David Piercy for his time and support during my visit.