Projects

BEES FOR BUSINESS

In September 2018 we launched our Bees for Business project which will support 50 women in rural Burkina Faso to become beekeepers and produce honey giving them a year-round, sustainable source of income and enable them to better meet the livelihood needs of their family.

Growing Fairer Futures

In January 2020 we launched Growing Fairer Futures, a one year project supporting young people in rural Eastern Ghana. Working in partnership with a local fair trade cocoa co-operative, this project will support 50 youth aged between 18 – 35 to establish their own cocoa farm and build it into a robust and sustainable business.

Environmental Project: Nicaragua

In September 2019 we began supporting UCA SJRC, a fair trade coffee co-operative in Northern Nicaragua, to address issues of deforestation and soil pollution affecting their farmers.

East Africa Governance and Finance Project

In May 2018 we launched our East Africa Governance and Finance Training project. This two year project will support 20 producer organisations across Kenya and Uganda to increase their productivity, sustainability and capacity to access finance.

Providing sustainable solutions to poverty: Malawi

In 2016 we started a three year project working in partnership with Malawi Fairtrade Network (MFTN) to reduce poverty levels among their member producers. 

Crafting Fairer Futures: Swaziland

In September 2018 we launched our third project working in partnership with Swaziland Fair Trade (SWIFT). This one year project is supporting 100 women who, together with a further 1,900, sell their handcrafts at the Manzini Bus Station in central Swaziland.

In Swaziland

With the support of Comic Relief, we began working in Swaziland in 2010, providing business training for the handcraft sector.

We helped establish a business support network known as SWIFT (Swaziland Fair Trade), which has a board of experienced business leaders from the local community.

In Rwanda

We are currently running a campaign to help improve the lives of women in Rwanda, where we have worked for the past eight years. Through delivering practical training and mentoring to ten handcraft co-operatives the project will enable the organisations to become sustainable and provide increased incomes for their producers.

In Latin America

Following the success of our Access to Finance training in Africa, this year we delivered two training and mentoring programmes in Latin America. Together with Shared Interest Society, we provide a vital combination of business training and fair finance. Using a donation of £50,000 from our sister organisation, plus the support of other funders, we helped small businesses in Columbia and Peru to improve their financial awareness.