Traidcraft - An update

A few months ago I wrote an article, “Traidcraft Needs Our Help”, which explained that Traidcraft had been running at a trading loss for four consecutive years and was appealing to the Church and wider community for urgent support. I am now writing with some good news: Traidcraft reports that December sales were almost £1 million, which was a 24% increase on December 2014, and that December 2015 was the fourth consecutive month of growth. Let’s hope that this growth in sales can be sustained throughout 2016. Ideas for promoting sales of Traidcraft goods in the circuit are always welcome.

Traidcraft have now launched the ‘Let it Grow’ Appeal to support their pioneering, life-changing work to fight poverty through trade and help families, social enterprises and entire communities to grow. Traidcraft has a particular mission to help smallholder farmers around the world. Smallholder farmers are responsible for over 70% of the world’s food. Yet they make up 50% of the world’s hungry people. Many small-scale farmers are vulnerable and marginalised, unable to invest in education, training or equipment to help them grow and thrive.

Rozina is a smallholder farmer in Bangladesh whose life has been transformed by a Traidcraft project. Before joining the project, Rozina regularly went without food, and lived in a flimsy bamboo shelter, sleeping on the floor. She and her family were trapped in a cycle of poverty. Agricultural growth is hugely important for communities like Rozina’s. It reduces poverty directly by raising farm incomes, and indirectly through generating employment and reducing food insecurity. Through Traidcraft, Rozina is now able to grow tea on her land, which means that she is now able to provide for her family and community.

Ruth H, Calverley

Comments

HOPE Together & HOPE Revolution

Dear friends, You are personally invited to attend an exciting evening at Bradford Academy that we hope will bring people together from Bradford and Leeds to see how further Unity, Prayerful Worship and Missional Transformation can develop between the two cities. Back in July 2012, we saw over 50 young people, 12 leaders and several churches from across Bradford and Leeds join together in a 2 day pilot mission. We partnered with a local church in Bradford to share and witness to Christ's love in word and deed. In addition to this, we included young people in the conversation of ways in which to help connect both cities in the future. There are many people interested in exploring the potential of developing something on a larger scale, culminating in a week of mission across the two cities in 2014. Your attendances and input will help shape the way forward: We would like to invite you to an exciting evening of information about HOPE Together and the y...

July message from Rev Phil

Dear Friends, The Methodist Church makes provision for its ministers to take a three-month sabbatical break from the routine of ministry every seven years – this year, in my case! By the time you read this letter, I will have already started my sabbatical and I will be absent from the circuit from mid-May to mid-August. This is not an extended holiday but an opening to do something different, as a way of being refreshed in ministry; an opportunity to ‘power down’ and to get away from a hectic, diary-driven ministry, in order to spend more focused time with God. It is a requirement and not an option for ministers to take their sabbatical break. There have been two main aspects to consider in planning the sabbatical. The first has been to decide how I should use the time. For your interest, I am pressing on with studies begun through Leeds University (which could lead to the award of a PhD), reflecting on my wor...

Summer Coffee Evenings raise over £1,200

Wilsden Trinity Church We would like to say a big thank you to all who supported us for your help in making our Summer Coffee Evenings such a brilliant success. The evenings have proved to be very popular and have been really well attended, attracting people from Wilsden village as well as members of other churches in the circuit. Together we have munched our way through a tonne of biscuits and home-made scones and consumed gallons of coffee and tea. We have baked and bric-a-bracked and book sorted and are all exhausted and half a stone heavier than we were in May but feel it has been well worth the effort. In addition to enjoying very pleasant social evenings, with God's help we have succeeded in raising over £1,200 - approximately £250 each for the five chosen charities: Yorkshire Air Ambulance , Parkinson Society , Alzheimer's Society , Multiple Sclerosis Society and Martin House Children's Hospice . We are already planning for next summer and look forward t...

Bradford North Circuit

Search This Blog