INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

International Women's Day was on Friday 8 March. Our Craft and Chat group organised a morning tea for all women in the village who were interested. They arranged for a guest speaker too and each person brought a plate of food if they could. The theme this year was Invest in women:Accelerate progress. 

Lois one of the organisers, explained to us what the colours of IWD represented. Purple is for justice and dignity, Green is for hope and the feminist movement and white is for purity. The colours can be traced back to the WSDV ( Women's Social and Political Union) in UK in 1908. It was a faction of the suffragette movement. Many of us wore either purple, green or white.

Trish introduced Shannon, a local girl who, with two friends started the "Fair Trade with Friends" oganisation. 

Shannon's story was inspiring. She told us how in the beginning she loved to travel but was very concerned for the poor people she saw in some countries. They were usually in small villages in remote places but not always. She was amazed at the lovely handmade items some of the women made to sell to infrequent tourists. Shannon developed a passion for handmade goods. She also wanted to be able to help these people be more prosperous. 
She and two other women got together and formed 'Fair Trade with Friends' where they travel all over the world to buy handmade items from the poor and sell them in developed countries and the money goes back to the villagers. some of them have now formed little businesses employing locals to make their goods and sell them through Fair Trade with Friends. It is making a difference to a lot of people all over the world. More information and handmade goods for sale can be found at fairtradewithfriends.com.

We had a good roll up and Shannon had brought along some of the craft that the artisans had made for us to purchase. The items were not cheap but beautifully made and knowing the money was going back to help these people made it easier.

I bought a few items that I liked:

I got three of these for my daughter Sonya.

I got this for my other daughter, Carol. It's a sketchbook.

I got this for my neighbour, Louise who is a raging fan of the Lions AFL team.(Australian Football League) 

We also celebrated two ladies birthdays. Margaret (Left) turned 80 and the amazing Dorothy turned 90.

It was an interesting, fun and yummy morning tea.