Christmas Mayhem!

It’s been a busy month for Rainbow Turtle with our online hamper orders coming in thick and fast which is not surprising since they all have delicious Far Trade products in them.  From our Taste of Africa to our Chocolate Delight Hamper, you will find a great selection of hampers to choose from to send loved ones this Christmas.

We have been kept busy to our shop making sure it’s fully stocked of quality goods ranging from children’s toys, home furnishings, jewellery and much more!  If you still haven’t had the chance to pop along to see our Christmas window display, why not do it this week and come inside to see what we have to offer.

Christmas stalls have been coming in and out of the warehouse non stop over the last few weeks.  We would like to thank all the schools & churches who have requested one of our stalls to run during this Christmas period.  We would also like to thank Gryffe High School, St Vincent's Primary School, Glenifer High School, Our Lady of the Missions Primary School, Lourde’s High School, Castlehead High School and St Luke’s High School who all invited us to run our stalls at their schools and staff rooms.  They all turned out to be a hit with both pupils and teachers and we hope to continue to run more stalls for them in the New Year. 

Our Fairtrade Photo Exhibition made a visit to The University of the West of Scotland and Rainbow Turtle were on hand to run a stall for them and encourage staff and students to take an interest in Renfrewshire’s efforts to support Fairtrade over the last ten years.  I wonder where the exhibition will be heading next.....keep an eye out!

Our Story behind Rainbow Turtle’s Christmas Window Display

In July Liz Cotton travelled to Malawi to lead a team of people who were joining together on a house building project with the charity Habitat for Humanity. Habitat works in many countries throughout the world tackling the massive problem of inadequate housing.  All projects are locally run and teams are invited in to provide labour; encouragement and much needed funds to kick start more projects. Most housing projects become self sustaining as the home owners pay back the cost of the materials over time which feed back into a rolling fund, however this project was for orphans and vulnerable children and so the homes were gifted to the children to give them some security and stability. Liz has done this each year since 2007 and is always challenged and inspired afresh by the families they work with and the team members who leave the comfort of their own homes to help change someone’s life on the other side of the world.

This year was no exception and in the team were some people from Renfrewshire who were joined by folk from all over the UK and beyond. With only two people knowing each other before they left the whole team met up at various airports en route and had already gelled by the time they reached Lilongwe. For most it was the first experience of a trip to Africa but all got stuck in and were aspiring master brickies by the end of the first day.

In just over a week two houses had their roofs on and were nearly ready for occupation and the team were all best buddies and the sadness was as much leaving each other as leaving the community that they had grown so close to in such a short time.

In her other life Liz runs Rainbow Turtle, the Fair Trade organisation which has a retail shop on Gauze Street in Paisley and works with schools, businesses, faith and community groups throughout Renfrewshire to help them in their Fair Trade journeys and quest to making the world a better place.

Inevitably on the build people shared their life stories and Liz learned that Adam, who is based in Berlin, designs window installations for shops in places like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Paris. He had come to Malawi with a strong desire to use his practical skills to benefit others and was really interested in Liz’s work in Renfrewshire. There were many jokes about him coming to do a window display in Paisley but joke has turned to reality and not only had he designed a winter wonderland display of ice caves, icicles and origami animals but he came to oversee the installation.

Such was the bonding of the Malawi team that 17 of the team members came to join him and help build the installation. This had coincided with the Paisley Lights switch on and hopefully helped brighten up a corner of Paisley and highlighted all the wonderful products from foods to gifts, crafts, jewellery, toys and all sorts of Christmas decorations and nativity sets. Rainbow Turtle wants people to make your shopping matter this year and help change the lives of people in some of the poorest parts of our world. 

Fairtrade Fortnight 2012!

With Fairtrade Fortnight underway, a variety of events are being held In Renfrewshire in celebration and promotion of Fairtrade. There are also Fairtrade Trails on the go, which means that participants can take literal steps while "Taking a Step" for Fairtrade.

Some examples of individual steps are to serve Fairtrade drinks at your next gathering, whether it is tea, coffee or wine, to swap your brand of biscuits to one with the Fairtrade mark.

The Paisley Fairtrade Trail is working it's way through many outlets in Paisley. When someone purchases Fairtrade goods they can collect stickers and a sticker sheet; followers of the trail will collect as many as they can and return their entries to the Rainbow Turtle shop..

From the Renfrewshire Council Website:

"All the step pledges made in Renfrewshire will then be gathered together and sent off to the Fairtrade Foundation to help them achieve their target."

The Fairtrade Foundation are aiming for 1.5 million steps in 2012, and we are hopeful that many of these steps will be achieved during Fairtrade Fortnight, starting today (27th February) till the 11th March.

People interested in joining in the Paisley Fairtrade Trail can start at one of:

Redss, Glasgow Road

Rainbow Turtle, Gauze Street

Tastebuds, Lawn Street

Paisley Abbey

WRVS Community Cafe, Causeyside Street

CO-OP Foodstore, Piazza Shopping Centre

Paisley Arts Centre

Coffee & Cream, High St

Cardosi's, High Street & Storie Street

As an incentive, there is a chance to win a Fairtrade Prize for taking part of the trial. More links on this Fairtrade Fortnight are available below:

Local Event Listing for Fairtrade Fortnight in Renfrewshire
Read more about the steps being taken in Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire Council page on Facebook.
Register steps you take with the Fairtrade Foundation.

Rainbow Turtle chosen for launch of paisley.org.uk Community Champions

 Renfrewshire Council for Voluntary Services (RCVS) and paisley.org.uk are working together to highlight community champions; charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises that are working to make paisley a better place.

From paisley.org.uk;
"RCVS exists to help community and voluntary groups in any way we can for the greater good of Renfrewshire's citizens. From securing funding, training staff and running events to handling payrolls, printing and the creation of promotional films, we aim to help local groups no matter what their needs are."

paisley.org.uk is a popular community-driven website for locally-based people to stay connected to the events of the town, and is a great place to launch articles promoting local champions, to further the promotion of the town.

Paisley Town Hall - View from St Mirren Street, across the White Cart Water. © Copyright Susie Young and licensed for reuse under thisCreative Commons License.

Paisley Town Hall - View from St Mirren Street, across the White Cart Water.
© Copyright Susie Young and licensed for reuse under thisCreative Commons License.

Rainbow Turtle were chosen to be the first entry for the Community Champions section of paisley.org.uk, and we are as proud as ever to be a part of the local community. However, the local community is also a part of us as we rely heavily on a dedicated team of local volunteers; we all work together to continue ethical trading and to raise awareness of ethical approaches to shopping, and their effect on the wider world.

We wish good luck to paisley.org.uk and RCVS in their partnership to promote Community Champions, and would like to thank them for asking Rainbow Turtle to be the subject of the first article in the Community Champions blog.

Links:

·       Blog Article about Community Champions

·       Community Champions section

·       Article about Rainbow Turtle on paisley.org

We've got that fantastic Fairtrade Fortnight Friday feeling!

In 1997 the Fairtrade Foundation pioneered an event known as Fairtrade Fortnight, in our very own Scotland. This was an event to promote ethical trading values and raise awareness of trading fairly; the campaign was successful, and was celebrated to the rest of the United Kingdom in 1998.

Fairtrade Fortnight has since grown to be celebrated in many other countries worldwide, and provides an exciting time of year in which many Fairs, Fashion Shows, Fetes and food tastings are made in encouragement of Fairtrade products.

This year, Fairtrade fortnight was termed "The Big Swap" and was celebrated February 22nd to March 7th, creating an opportunity for all involved to enhance the profile of Fairtrade in the local community and further afield. Schools throughout the country work on projects to generate interest and raise concern for the younger generation and their families.

During this time of the year, Rainbow Turtle took on an exciting (and slightly terrifying) challenge of providing service above and beyond normal duties; sales and orders increased, and sale or return orders skyrocketed. We worked hard each day to manage order information, safely keep on top of stock, host stalls at local events, arrange and pack stall after stall for local schools and churches, and accept incoming requests. Throughout this time, the Rainbow Turtle shop remained open for sale, promoting Fairtrade in Paisley (with some giant inflatable Cups, I might add).


Teamwork was an essential part of success, and we couldn't have made it through without the generous help of our volunteers, both in the shop and in the warehouse. The busy fortnight also became a time for new staff Tony and Simon to learn a great deal about Rainbow Turtle's products and administration, as well as an opportunity to meet the clients and volunteers who all work hard to promote Fairtrade.

This year 30 million people knew about Fairtrade Fortnight, making 10 million people more than last; with Fairtrade Fortnight over, we can rejoice in the success of spreading the word of Fairtrade, as well as making it through and out to the other side. We can also begin to think about next years Fairtrade Fortnight, and hope that it is even more successful than this year's!

Links:

·       The Fairtrade Foundation BigSwap page (2010)

·       The Fairtrade Foundation page about Fairtrade Fortnight 2011