FAIR TRADE
	NEWSLETTER March 2005

Dear Fair Traders and Partners,

Preda has organized seminars on the prevention of child abuse in schools and communities all over the Province of Zambales and in nearby provinces. There we gave a waste control and environmental protection seminar to the students and people. We tell them how bad the foil drink bags are.These are very durable and colorful, they clog up the drains and also damage  the  sea and environment. So the children are encouraged to collect them and then  Preda buys them and the classroom fund earns money to buy educational materials.

Besides collecting from the  schools  we also get the bags from very poor waste paper collectors who roam the  parks and streets collecting discarded paper for recycling , we buy from  them too and they earn  a lot of money. It is a very  happy day when we go to the recycling  area and pay them. These poor people  line up carrying their collected foil drink pouches.

2. The  boys rescued from  the  jails   and girls recovering from sexual abuse and exploitation   at the Preda center  then  clean the bags  as a way to earn pocket money  once or twice  a week when they go to the river to swim or wash clothes.  They gather water in buckets and clean the foil pouches  in the buckets the water is then put on plants for irrigation.

3. The  boys and the girls  receive a payment for every foil pouches they clean they earn good pocket money every week.

4. The bags are then given out to the older girls  in the Preda center where they  sew them  for the bag making  , more foil drink bags are given to women who are organizing into sewing circles and they have  a carrier bag making  operation going. Some of these are mothers of abused children so they  can earn a good money . The expert sewers can make 15 bags a day and earn TEN (10) Euro. The daily skilled wage here in the Philippines is  only 300 pesos (5 Euro) so they are getting  100% more payment in the Fair Trade project. This is for sewing together about 30 small foil pouches into a large shopping bag that can take a lot of groceries.

5   The mothers  are very happy and  asking for more sewing machines. Preda provides  the machines . on a  "Sew now pay later"  at a very low cost they get an electric sewing machines for as low as  Euro 40

The bags, back packs ,purses and hats are then  shipped to partners in Australia and Germany, DWP  Ravensberg, and Oxfam in  Australia have placed orders ,El Puente  a FT organization in Germany   is also buying. These are growing very popular. However there are fake  brands of these bags  made by commercial  business that are not Fair Trade but claim to be Fair Trade. In fact they buy them direct from the printing factories.   So that is a warning to the FT movement they must check the source of the makers to see it is FT really and the pouches are recycled.

So  the Preda project is helping the  children in the schools , the environment, the  Preda children who clean them, the  Preda teenage girls from the  brothels ,  the mothers   of  children at risk  who can sew and  earn good money.  Preda gets a small money to buy more sewing machines to give to more needy people. Many people are helped with this project.

The Preda Vom Fass  project for indigenous people and  environmental protection.

Background and History of the Aeta people of  Zambales.

The  Indigenous people of the Philippines are know by various names and have existed all over the Philippine archipelago long  before the arrival of the Malaysian. They are decedents of  people from the  African continent that migrated to Asia over several thousands years.  Their  diet of fruits, wild banana,  honey,and game and fish and the ned to live and move in dense jungle evolution gave them a small  body  structure  and strong hardy bodies.

They are  the  aboriginal people who first inhabited these beautiful tropical islands as long as five  or  six thousand years ago. In the Province of Zambales they  are called Aeta and Until very  recently they lived nomadic  lives inhabiting the  lush forests teeming with wildlife and were hunters and gatherers. They    lived a hard but successful life.

Rare and valuable Knowledge of medicinal plants

They  developed a great knowledge of plant life and especially medicinal plants which  has been their sole sources of  medication for thousands of years. These plants and herbs and teas  are  used by them to this day by these Aeta tribes  people  people.   There was plenty of land and food and they had no conflict with    each other. They developed  a peaceful and tranquil life  and resolved differences among themselves through mediation and the wisdom of the elders of the tribes.  Until recent years they  had no fixed abode but made temporary shelters as they moved from one part of the  forest to another. With the  arrival of the  Malayans  they were forced to flee  the coastal forests and retreat to the  mountains. This more  so when the spanish arrived and they became  in accessible in the remote mountain forests and resisted  religious conversion and domestication by the   invaders.

A oppressed and exploited people.

They Aeta people today  have been reduced from a once proud independent tribal cultural separate group of  Filipino  people  roaming freely the mountain ranges  to   scattered groups of impoverished people living  small villages and have been restrained on reservations. The suffered the  diseases of the  invaders and their numbers were greatly reduced . Today they have with the helped of church  and  civil society  reclaimed  their  dignity and rights and are organising their people to establish their  ancestral domains.  New laws have been in their favour recognising the rights to the rain forests as ancestral domains. however much of the forests  have  already been  wiped out by  the   loggers   working for rich families and  wood industries in the  developed  world.

The organised groups have received education and organisational  abilities and they are trying to resist further encroachments by  illegal loggers into  all  that  remains of their  rain forests.   Preda is their partner in this  struggle and has helped them organise  established well  managed and organised communities and villages. Preda has also  negotiated  between them and the military , paid by land grabbers who want the  rain forests  for themselves  try  to chase away the   indigenous people  . The Military backed by  powerful land grabbers and loggers say the  people are  squatters and should be driven out when in fact the indigenous people  are  the  true owners. Preda is helping to protect their   rights.

Instructors, Researchers and Preda staff poses infront of the Integrated Mango-Based Organic Farming Project in the Local Agricultural University
Spraying of natural Flower Inducer as part of the research project

Establishing tree nurseries.

Preda has conducted training and  seminars with them to establish   tree nurseries and  learn nursery management tree grafting and natural organic  mango and fruit production methods.

The first training seminar was held on January 26th  at the Agricultural University in San Marcelino, Zambales . This university is also a partner of Preda foundation  in pioneering organic mango fruit production. There  were three experts from the University that conducted  the training for the  representatives of the indigenous people.

The nursery  training  project continued with training grafting,selecting of the best seeds   of mangos and other trees. There were demonstrations, questions and  practice in actual grafting.  At present the  15  trainees have  returned to their villages and  are preparing the plots and sites where they will  establish  nurseries. They are  building seed boxes and are already  beginning  the  seed collection  phase of he  project. All of this is funded by the  Von Fass project  fund in co-operation with  the Preda foundation who provide the administration need of the project.  The seminar training was  arranged by Preda  staff.

Empowerment and hope through  origination and education.

A community of marginalised indigenous people that were once harassed and threatened with extinction are now  finding a new strengthened dignity through this  project.   Their children are presently being prepared for the next school year and then in June the Scholarship educational project will begin.  There is much for them to look forward to and  when once they were  in despair  and hopelessness they now find courage solidarity and a new lease of life thanks to the Preda-Vom Fass project.

In order to assist the vocational training for the older girls in the PREDA Home for Girls, the team is now presenting seminars on environmental protection and waste management to the schools. The colorful foil drink bags popular in the school canteens are an environmental hazard but can be turned into attractive and functional carrier bags by the girls at Preda’s Home for former exploited girls, by their unemployed mothers and by the women’s livelihood sewing group. The project is giving good earnings to the senior girls at Preda and income for the women.  To date, the project provides jobs for the 44 sewers and more than 120 waste paper collectors who supplied the pouches. It also provides occupational therapy for the  girls and boys of Preda home for boys, they become part of the production where they earn pocket money.

Girls at Preda sew the collected tretrapacks into attractive carrier bags

Women's Livelihood sewing groups

		Waste paper collectors are happy to sell their collected juice pouches to Preda
Children enjoys thirst quenching juice drinks	Preda Children Shows the finished products drink foil pouches

INSIGHTS………

I accompany Sir Roger and Sir Donard from PREDA’s `Fair Trade’ team to  pick up of foil drink pouches for the production of the famous `Recycled-bags’, which are sold in “One world shops” in many different countries.

The people, who are collecting for PREDA are well organized, divided in 7 groups of 15 members, which are scheduled twice a week to collect foil drink pouches for PREDA. The collectors are of all ages and all work here together to earn extra money. Two weeks ago PREDA picked up 44,000 collected  foil drink  pouches. This time it’s more than double. Sir Roger and Sir Donard have to go back to PREDA to get more money to pay all the collectors; they did not expect this enormous result.

I talked to Mary, 22 years old; she collected together with her mother 6450 Tetra packs in these two weeks, this are around 460 a day! And we are not talking about a small area  where they are searching for the drink  foil pouches, but about a giant dump side! For this work they get 1290 pesos from PREDA (around 20 euros), a lot of money in the Philippines. The people here at the dump side love collecting  for PREDA because they get good earnings.

I observed that another woman with her little daughter in her arms, after getting the money for her collection of pouches, went to the  `Sari-sari-store’ to buy rice for her family …

Aren’t we all waiting for steps like this? For sustainable, social and environmentally compatible projects with immediate effects? This project really improves the quality of live for many people - for me this entire program is a great example that ‘Fair Trade’ really has an effect. 

Jana Schrempp – volunteer at PREDA from Germany