En route to women's cooperatives in the Bekaa - iloubnan.info

Report by Anne llcinkas from iloubnan.info
Music by Dhafer Youssef

This report summarizes our field trip on October 15th and our celebration of World Rural Woman's Day. In the midst of our most forgotten Lebanese villages, there are powerful women doing some impressive work and bringing change to their households and communities...this video is priceless...

Thank you Anne.

Article published in L'Orient-Le Jour by the journalist Rana Andraos

Article is available here.

Fair Trade Lebanon featured in - Top stories - iloubnan.info

Pictures and report by Anne llcinkas.

Celebrating World Rural Woman's Day on October 15th

On October 15th 2010, Fair Trade Lebanon will invite local journalists to a field trip day to celebrate the World Rural Woman's Day and raise awareness for the Fair Trade cause and its impact on local disadvantaged communities.

Our organization has programmed visits to two women's cooperatives and partners located in the Bekaa. This field trip will give the journalists the chance to dialogue with those active women, learn about their stories and watch them while they work in their cooperatives.

We will first visit women from the cooperative of Fourzol, in the caza of Zahle to witness the preparation of grape molasses. Then we will head to Rachaya in West Bekaa, where the cooperative will be preparing jams and grilled wheat. Members will openly speak about their daily challenges, their progress and their ambitions.

Pictures and press releases will be available after the 15th, stay posted!

The awaited video: Fair Trade Lebanon on BBC

Thank you Katy Watson for this valuable report!

More of Mosaic...

In baalbeck

Wine producer talks to the group about Lebanese agriculture and challenges in the region of Deir el Ahmar.

Enjoying a traditional Lebanese lunch in our partner cooperative in Rachaya – West Bekaa. Sahtein!

Saturday night: Group sleeps at Eco-lodge in Taanayel, a small village reconstructed in traditional methods, promoting sustainable development and authentic living.

Ain Ebel...still wearing her white gown

Ain Ebel is a small village in the South of Lebanon. Also known as Arrouset el Jnoub , the "bride of the South", because of its people's joie de vivre and its beauty.

Although in 2006 the village was severely damaged by the Israeli attacks, you can still feel today a profound sense of tranquillity and serenity as you arrive there (the army check points and the UNIFIL don’t even disturb it). You’d spend hours staring at the green hills surrounding you and talking to down-to-earth people who feel strongly attached to their land and family.

Fair Trade Lebanon was there yesterday as we were hosting a training session in a cooperative about the basics of hygiene and food safety.
This session was financed and supported by the French Embassy who agreed to accompany one of the development projects we are undertaking and which concerns four of the partner cooperatives we work with.

Our field trips remind us of the responsibility that rests everyday on our shoulders. We are constantly seeking new markets abroad to expand our outreach in order to help these women and cooperatives produce more and all year long. We should all feel implicated in this duty. Because it is our duty and not a choice, it is a reason that I invite you all to embrace and support. Trust me, there are still people out there trying to do good.

Help us talk about the beauty of this land. Help us send out a strong and united message about the need to change the rules in the conventional trading system. Help us protect our small producers who get paid peanuts when they enter a monopolized market that pulls them further down from where they already are.

I was strongly touched, hurt and enraged when one of our partners, a dedicated woman, had a terrible experience with a supermarket chain. The latter did not respect their contract agreement, barely paid the coop 20% of the total merchandise and sent her back some of the products in despicable unsellable conditions, damaged and broken.