Traidcraft
Traidcraft is:
- A Christian response to poverty
- Our mission is to fight poverty through trade.
- We respect people and the environment
- We abide by and promote fairer trading practices
- We strive to be transparent and accountable.
We have been involved with Traidcraft for over 20 years, only a few years after the national Traidcraft organisation was set up. Marianne Wade (now a member at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church, Worcester) was the first person to run a regular monthly stall, and with very short intermissions that has continued to the present. When feasible it is now held on a fortnightly basis. A wide range of foodstuffs is regularly stocked along with some stationery and cards, but customers also order regularly from the catalogues, especially near Christmas. The church itself is a regular customer, as Traidcraft tea and coffee are used at all our functions, and Traidcraft loo-rolls can be found in the toilets! Through her membership of the Worcester Trade Justice Network, the current Traidcraft organiser also holds stalls at outside events, e.g. Oxfam concerts, and Cafod coffee mornings in the Guildhall. Our turnover last year (2004) was over £2,300.
We are proud to be associated with an organisation which, while having a specifically Christian base, seeks to play its part in “making poverty history” among communities and in countries of many faiths. Traidcraft’s foundation principles are:-
- Traidcraft is a Christian response to poverty
- Our mission is to fight poverty through trade.
- We respect people and the environment
- We abide by and promote fairer trading practices
- We strive to be transparent and accountable.
Our fair trading activities are now part of a wider initiative within the church to move towards becoming an Eco-Congregation. An Action Group has undertaken an environmental audit , both of our church premises and of our church life, and some significant progress has been made. This is, of course, an on-going process.