Archive for October, 2008

The theme of Fair Trade month has been “Faces of Fair Trade,” and Katy and I wanted to use this occasion to share with you a face-to-face visit we had with two coffee farmers in Nicaragua last year.  Juanita Villareyna and Rosa Jimenez are members of La Fem, a women’s cooperative in Esteli, Nicaragua [...]

Read the entry: Nicaraguan Faces of CRS Fair Trade →

Fair Trade month brought a lot of attention to responsible gift giving at the holidays and shopping all year long. The Catholic Spirit in New Jersey recently featured how a variety of communities and groups in Metuchen promote Fair Trade and are using it as an intentional way to promote solidarity when budgets are [...]

Read the entry: Responsible Shopping during Festive Times →

Colleagues in the 4th floor cubicles around the Catholic Relief Services-Baltimore office know that I ran the Marine Corps Marathon this past Sunday, by virtue of the fact that I am groaning from the pain in my quads every time I stand up! Since athletics are on my brain these days, I thought I’d [...]

Read the entry: Fair Trade Sports and RESPECT →

As Fair Trade month nears its close, our thoughts turn to U.S. elections.  We asked Tina Rodousakis of the CRS Advocacy team to help us understand our roles as faithful citizens. Many thanks to Tina for the following guest blog posting:

“It’s hard to believe but the presidential and congressional elections are only two weeks [...]

Read the entry: Guest Blog: How Fair Traders Can Be Faithful Citizens →

Those of you familiar with CRS Fair Trade coffee partner Dean Cycon of Dean’s Beans won’t be surprised be this latest article from him in the Corporate Responsibility Newswire. On a recent visit to Rwanda, Dean helped provide a training to overcome gender-based violence to coffee farmers of the cooperative, COOPAC. As Dean says [...]

Read the entry: Overcoming Gender Violence in Rwanda →

All our loyal blog readers know that October is Fair Trade month, but did you realize that September 15 to October 15 is also Hispanic Heritage month? Now is the perfect time to check out the Spanish language resources CRS has at crsespanol.org. The site is filled with examples of how CRS is [...]

Read the entry: Double the October Celebrations: Fair Trade and Hispanic Heritage →

In an unfortunate twist of calendar fate, the first day of Fair Trade month is also the first day of the Catholic Relief Services fiscal year. Yesterday Katy and I were scurrying around with several “get a fresh start on all the good work we are going to do” activities, and the arrival of [...]

Read the entry: Become a fan of CRS Fair Trade to celebrate FT month →