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.

SOL SINEMA YN RHYDAMAN

Roedd y Sol Cinema, sef Sinema mewn carafan sydd wedi ei yrru gan bwer yr haul yn y dref trwy’r dydd ar Dydd Gwener 5 Mawrth. Roedd ciw cyson yn aros i fyn d i mewn i weld ffilmaiu am Fasnach Deg. Beth oedd yn galonogol oedd yn ogystal a chodi ymwybyddiaeth am Fasnach Deg oedd y ffaith bod cymaint o bobl yn gyfarwydd iawn am FASNACH DEG. Yn wir roedd nifer yn dod atom ar ol siopa yn y CO-OP lleol gyda nwyddau Masnach Deg yn eu bagiau.



Daeth y Co-op a nifer o busnesau lleol atom i gynorthwyo gyda ein Banana Split Enfawr. Dyma’r ail un ac edrychwn ymlaen at y nesaf. Rhoddodd y Co-op y bananas, Franks yr hufen ia a LBS y gwter plastic 30 troedfedd i osod y bananas a’r hufen ia.

FAIRTRADE IN AMMANFORD

The problem with having the title "Fairtrade Town" is that it conjurs up hopes of a utopian oasis of happy ethical shopping and total community togetherness. When you're proudly stating that you are "The First Fairtrade Town In Wales", as in the case of Ammanford, then visitors' expectations rise even higher.

So, when Anne and Helen from UNDERCURRENTS arrived in town with their solar powered cinema in a caravan (yes; you did read that right!) for a day of fairtrade film screenings at the top of the Arcade, they were a little disappointed to find the cafe at the other end of the Arcade was charging them £2.50 for a coffee that was not even Fairtrade!
When we first gained Fairtrade Town status in 2002, just as when Wales gained Fairtrade Nation status in 2009, we were all at pains to point out that this was only a start; the utopian paradise had not yet arrived! And it still hasn't.
But, as Anne and Helen happily witnessed through the rest of the day, we have come a long way. The amount of awareness and enthusiasm for Fairtrade has improved massively in the last few years. As a Fairtrade Town Group, we used to have to have stalls in the town centre to spread the word. While there will always be a role for those type of stalls, we have now got a far more powerful twin attack on our side ; Cadbury's TV advertising budget and the schoolchildren of Ammanford! All the schools, from the Nursery to the Comp are learning about Fairtrade (and indeed further, from Cylch Meithrins and Church playgroups to Coleg Sir Gar too).

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT 2010

A massive thanks to everyone that made Fairtrade Fortnight such a success in Ammanford again this year.

• During the year there has been a 6% increase in awareness of the Fairtrade mark, meaning that 74% of Britain's population now know about Fairtrade
• There were over 12,000 fairtrade events across Britain
• over 1 million swaps were made on the Fairtrade Swap-o-Meter
• over 11.5 million people said they bought a fairtrade product

The Largest Fairtrade Fortnight ever!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Fairtradefoundation?dm_i=5QB,47LR,1O8WSB,D4I8,1

PYTHEFNOS MASNACH DEG 2010

Diolch i bawb a wnaeth y bythefnos yn lwyddiant yn Rhydaman eleni eto.

• Yn ystod y flwyddyn codwyd ymwybyddiaeth pobl am Fasnach Deg gan 6%, sy'n golygu bod 74% o bobl Prydain nawr yn gwybod am Fasnach Deg.
• Roedd dros 12,000 o ddigwyddiadau ar hyd Prydain.
• Gwnaed dros 1 miliwn o swaps ar y "Swap-o-Meter" Masnach Deg.
• Dywedodd 11.5 miliwn o bobl eu bod wedi prynu nwyddau Masnach Deg.
• Y Pythefnos Masnach Deg fwyaf eto!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Fairtradefoundation?dm_i=5QB,47LR,1O8WSB,D4I8,1

Fair Trade Wales

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