Collaboration with Carrefour Supermarket!

[texte français ci-dessous]

Fair Trade Lebanon and Terroirs du Liban (TDL) have launched a collaboration with Carrefour supermarket, located in Hazmieh, in the capital of Beirut, through the animation of a live Saj station (traditional Lebanese bread, served with cheese, zaatar and other fillings) while also selling the whole range of TDL products.

The Saj stand is located next to Carrefour’s bakery and is animated by cooperatives’ women who underwent the food training sessions offered within the UN Women project.

Through this collaboration and within the framework of the “Placement Program” of the project, these women were hired by Fair Trade and Tourism Lebanon (FTTL) to put into practice their knowledge and further develop their expertise.

Live saj preparation hours are from 9 AM until 8 PM, throughout the week.
This collaboration will last until the end of December 2016 with a chance of extension.

Support this great development initiative and make sure to pass by and taste their exquisite Saj preparations! 

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Fair Trade Lebanon et Terroirs du Liban (TDL) ont lancé une collaboration avec le supermarché Carrefour, situé à Hazmieh, dans la capitale de Beyrouth, et ce en animant un stand de préparation sur place de Saj (pain libanais traditionnel, servi avec du fromage, du zaatar et autres garnitures) ainsi qu’en proposant à la vente la gamme entière des produits TDL.
Le stand de Saj est situé à côté de la boulangerie de Carrefour ; Il est animé par les femmes des coopératives ayant participées aux sessions de formations culinaires offertes au sein du projet UN WOMEN.
Grace à cette collaboration et toujours dans le cadre du projet, elles ont été embauchées par Fair Trade and Tourism Lebanon (FTTL) en tant que stagiaires dans le but de leur offrir un débouché de travail, de mettre en pratique leurs connaissances et de développer leur expertise.
 

Les horaires de préparation de Saj sont de 9h à 20h, courant toute la semaine.
Cette collaboration aura lieu jusqu’à la fin du mois de Décembre 2016 avec une chance de prolongation.
Soutenez cette belle initiative de développement et ne manquez pas de passer pour déguster leur préparation exquise de Saj !
 

Interesting Numbers

Fairtrade = 80 million consumers
Fairtrade = 8 million beneficiaries
Fairtrade = Turnover of € 3 billion (2010)
Fairtrade = Represents 0.02% of world trade ... with an average annual growth of 20% per year.

Fair Trade for Women Producers...Portraits of Hope and Determination

The Women’s Economic Empowerment project was launched in 2009 and is funded by the MDG3 Global Fund by the Government of the Netherlands. Through the project, WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing) and its partners are advocating for the needs of informal workers, especially women. The project seeks to promote the voice, visibility and validity of working poor women across different countries, sectors and issues in the informal economy. As part of this project, WIEGO’s Global Trade Programme, in partnership with leading Fair Trade organizations in seven countries, initiated Fair Trade for Women Producers with a focus on documenting, analyzing and disseminating key success factors of fair trade by involving women producers in all stages of development.


They have coordinated and organized their 2 year research with several country networks: In India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Mexico, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. In each country, they have chosen a few women groups and have followed them in their daily life, searching for information and common trends. The groups were given video and digital cameras and were asked to be their own messengers, so they began to interview themselves and use their own words to tell their unique stories.

I personally watched in Kenya the series of small documentaries that WIEGO produced for each country...I enjoyed each second of them and realized that sometimes we could be extremely ungrateful in regard to what we have, or what we think we don't have. I was struck by the courage and the motivation of these women struggling to put food on the table and make a decent living for themselves and their families. Some of them are marginalized by their respective societies because they happen to be widows or with special needs...These women producers chose to fight against their tremendous poverty and oppression, by organizing themselves and increasing their power and performance as a group.

The below videos would give you a broader vision of what Fair Trade or Women Producers really represents:

As stated by WIEGO... these are "portraits of hope and determination".

Bijaipur, India: part I

Bijaipur, India: part II

All the documentaries and analysis are available on the blog of Fair Trade for Women Producers (under the country pages), click here to access the home page.

Thank you Elaine, Carole and Sofia for the beautiful work...and a bigger thanks to all these noble ladies who, by speaking out, remind us that life is really what you make of it...