"On 4th June, our Fair Trade Cooperative (Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust) organized its annual feast World Fest 2006 which was celebrated at Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta.
On this festival, fair traded products, delicious food specialities and drinks were put on sale. Young refugees from Dar is-Sliem provided African food, diverse ethnic music namely blues and jazz music, African theatre, and an Italian dance group performed Capoeira, the traditional Brasilian fusion of dance and martial arts.
This year`s WORLDFEST is celebrating the Global Journey to Fair Trade, a movement that has been initiated by the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT, www.ifat.org). Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust, as a member of IFAT, and received the Fair Trade Banner from Africa to present it to the Maltese public as part of its voyage around the world. Malta will therefore then represent the first European country displaying the banner.
The Global Journey started in 2004 at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. Setting off from one of the poorest slums in the world, IFAT members carry the banner through every country around the globe in which the federation is represented in order to promote the message of Fair Trade.
In recent years, the great variety of fair traded products has gained an increased popularity of consumers worldwide; to an extent, that many businesses now become interested in selling such products. However, in order to distinguish "true" fair trade organisations from the marketing gloss of big corporations and unethical businesses, IFAT developed the Fair Trade Organisation (FTO) Mark that is displayed on the banner and backed up by a reliable monitoring system to make it trustworthy.
The Global Journey is a celebration of the fair trade movement and the non-profit labour of fair trade organisations. Moreover, it is set up to launch the FTO Mark and to increase public awareness vis-à-vis the concept of fair trade. On 4th June 2006, the Maltese people will have the opportunity to stand up for fair trade by joining the great activities provided with at the WORLDFEST `06.
For more information please kindly call 21.31.55.62 or 21.24.48.65.
