This year’s edition of the Taste the World fair trade festival will be held on Saturday, 9th December between 1000CET and 2200CET at St. James Cavalier in Valletta. Fair trade products, ranging from foodstuffs, handicrafts and clothes, to musical instruments and CDs of world music will be on sale throughout the day from stalls manned by the volunteers that run the fair trade shop L-Arka.
The highlights of this year’s festival are a seminar on the cotton industry between 1000CET and 1300CET, including the screening of a documentary film on the situation of garment workers in Cambodia, and a concert starting at 2000CET featuring violinist Simon Vella, oud player Walid from Sudan, and African music and dance. Entrance to all events is free of charge.
The morning seminar will focus on the cultivation of cotton and the manufacture of textiles and clothes in the South of the world. In many communities, unsustainable practices in the production of cotton have a strong negative impact on people’s lives and on the natural environment. In developing countries workers are often underpaid and the spraying of pesticides causes serious breathing and other health problems.
The theme “Cotton: Caught in a dirty business” highlights the need to establish fair and sustainable practices that would benefit both the workers and the local communities, and the natural environment. This seminar, which is open to the general public, is funded by the “Playing Fair Alternative” EU development education project, supported by Forum Malta fl-Ewropa and held in collaboration with the “Global Action Schools” project.
The seminar will be led by Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign and Red Cross activist Nina Zita, and Vince Caruana, a lecturer on Environmental Education at the University of Malta. The seminar will include an interactive exercise exploring “our links with the global south through textiles.”
The short documentary film “Courageous Hearts without Retreat” will be introduced by EVS volunteer Nina Zita, who co-produced the film. It includes interviews with garment workers in Cambodia and representatives of some of the largest chain stores selling clothes in Sweden. The film also carries interviews with the Cambodian garment workers during their visits to the shops in Sweden that sell the garments they produce.
During the Festival, the four Maltese organisations that make up the Forum for Justice and Cooperation, including the fair trade organisation Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust, will be presenting information about the EU-funded development education and GLEN projects in which they are involved.
Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust that runs the world shop L-Arka is a officially recognized as a fair trade organisation by IFAT, the International Fair Trade Assocation.
For more information phone L-Arka in St. Paul’s Street, Valletta on 2124 4865. To contact the Forum for Justice and Cooperation phone 2131 5562.
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