MESSAGE FOR AMMANFORD FAIRTRADE SUPPORTERS

Hello Ammanford Fairtrade Supporters!

A piece about Ammanford's Fairtrade Fortnight is in April/May issue of Carmarthenshire Life with lots of nice photos!
Thanks to everyone who helped in all the different events in the Fortnight. It was another really impressive fortnight of events across the community.

More good news : We have been succesful in re-newing our Fairtrade Town status again!

Remember you can keep in touch with latest updates on thsi website .

Also : Please use this space to promote anything that you are doing to do with Fairtrade locally.

Thanks again for everyone's help in keeping (and building) Ammanford as a fairer and fairer Fairtrade Town!

NEGES I GEFNOGWYR MASNACH DEG RHYDAMAN

Neges i gefnogwyr Masnach Deg Rhydaman,

Mae erthygl am Pythefnos masnach Deg Rhydaman yn Carmarthen Life mis Ebrill/Mai – gyda nifer o luniau!

Diolch i bawb a gefnogodd yr holl ddigwyddiau yn ystod y pythefnos. Roedd yn bythefnos arbennig arall gyda llawer o ddigwyddiadau ar draws y gymuned.

Newyddion da arall – Rydym wedi adnewyddu ein statws Tref Masnach Deg eto.

Cofiwch gallech gadw mewn cyswllt a’r holl newyddion diweddaraf drwy ymwled a’r wefan hon. Hefyd defnyddiwch y gofod hwn i hysbysu unrhwy beth yr ydych yn ei wneud o ran Masnach Deg yn lleol.

Diolch unwaith eto am helpu i gadw (ac adeiladu) Rhydaman yn dref Masnach Deg tecach i bawb.

FAIRTRADE WALK

The Fortnight ended with more action aimed at taking the message out of Ammanford, as people from the town joined others from around the Swansea area for a Fairtrade Walk from the Oxfam Shop in Swansea to The Red Cafe at The Mumbles; a lovely walk along Swansea Bay, with Fairtrade bananas to power us on and a wonderful Fairtrade menu waiting for us at The Red Cafe at the end. (The sort of menu every cafe in every Fairtrade Town should have!)

This walk was inspired by The Fairtrade Way, a long distance walk from Garstang, the First Fairtrade Town in England, up through the Fairtrade Towns of the Lake District to Keswick. I joined part of the walk pioneering the route last year, and we are now planning to get a series of Fairtrade Walks through Wales, including routes from Ammanford to Carmarthen and Ammanford to Swansea. The idea is to use the walks to link, and publicise, Fairtrade Towns, retail outlets, cafes and Bed And Breakfasts, hotels and youth hostels.

I love the idea of the Fairtrade Walks as they are such a good physical symbol of how the Fairtrade movement in the UK has spread in the last ten years though Grass Roots activity in villages, towns and cities thoughout Wales and the UK.

Phil Broadhurst

Anybody interested in promoting Fairtrade locally can contact Phil Broadhurst : riversidepicnic@yahoo.co.uk or 01269 596933 or go to www.fairtrade.org.uk for support.

AMMANFORD FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT - UPDATE

With Ammanford full of activity, the message was also spread outside the town during the Fortnight. As the First Fairtrade Town in the First Fairtrade Nation, Ammanford, Wales has an inspirational role to play for other communities interested in promoting Fairtrade. As a result, Ammanford Fairtrade supporters were among those attending a Fairtrade Tea Party at the Welsh Assembly on Wednesday 3rd March, which was designed to gain support for The Big Swap from Assembly Members. The Big Swap was the message of this year's Fairtrade Fortnight, and is an important campaign as it seeks to get people to make their first swap to Fairtrade, but also encourages long term supporters to look for more Fairtrade items. It is important that we recognise it is not just tea, coffee and chocolate which is available; there are, literally, thousands of Fairtrade products available now. For a full list go to www.fairtrade.org.uk . A regularly updated Fairtrade Directory for Ammanford is available at www.ammanfordfairtrade.blogspot.com .

SOL CINEMA IN AMMANFORD

The solar powered cinema in a caravan, The Sol Cinema, was in town all day on Friday 5th March and had a permanent queue of school groups and others. It is a tiny 1960s caravan converted into a miniature cinema, complete with curtained screen, old style cinema chairs and a dvd projector which is powered by solar panels. We expected its amazing style to draw interested people in who we could then show a variety of short films on Fairtrade to. What was nice was that, as well as generating as much interest as we thought it would, nearly everyone around seemed to already be well aware of Fairtrade, and indeed several people were coming to us having done their shop at the Co-Op, complete with Fairtrade items in their bags. Ofcourse, as I keep saying, Utopia is not yet built on the banks of the Aman, and perhaps a random selection of people shopping up the other end of town might not have been so Fairtrade-aware. There is no doubt that the role of the Co-Op in making its customers aware of Fairtrade and in making it available and affordable at own-brand price levels has had a massive impact on our campaign in Ammanford and elsewhere.

The Co-Op also came together with other local businesses to help with the now annual (This was the second year) Giant Fairtrade Banana Split in the Arcade on the evening of the 5th. The Co-Op provided Fairtrade bananas, FRANK'S provided the ice cream, and LBS provided the guttering to lay the 30 foot long banana split out in.