19 May 2011

SATEMWA JOINT BODY USES THE FAIR TRADE PREMIUM TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY POLICING SET UPS IN VILLAGES IN THYOLO

 As advance by Abraham Maslow in his motivation theories, a worker needs to be secure within his/her livelihood in order to perform better and happily. This concept is also included in the Satemwa Mission and Vision statement,''to have a workforce that is socially taken care of.
In this regard, Satemwa supports Community policing activities within Thyolo District. This is evidenced by the appointment of the Satemwa General Manager - Mr Emmott as in-charge of two community forum panels.
In addition to the Satemwa support thus the Fair trade Joint Body having been approached by the community agreed to support the two fora with security items such as push bikes, whistles, torches and shoes.
These were presented at a function held at the headquarters of Group Village Headman Maonga.
The function was witnessed by Thyolo Police Officials, traditional leaders and people from around Mphuka Traditional Authority, Satemwa managers and Joint Body members.
Group Village Headman Maonga was all smiles upon receipt of these items as a donation towards Community Policing. He said the bicycle will ease transport problems being faced by the committee when there is need to travel from one point to another to attend to local security issues in the area. He further thanked the Satemwa Management for coming up with the idea to go fair trade. As a former Joint Body member, he reiterated that he is aware that this is happening because the Fair trade tea consumer has continued to buy teas from Satemwa and wished if that continued so the plight of local Thyolo communities should benefit even more.
In his address, the Station Officer for Thyolo Police Station said he did not take this for granted. He attributed the gesture to the good neighborliness that Satemwa was being applauded for by all stakeholders and asked those present to extend their thanks to Satemwa management. Regarding Fair trade, he was so surprised to note that there are such consumers who have the passion of people who participate in the production of the products they buy. Wished if they could continue drinking tea from Satemwa.

In the Photo,the Joint Body Chairman (right) and the Thyolo Police Station Officer (left) are handing over the push Bicycle to Group Village Headman Maonga (centre)

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14 May 2011

SATEMWA TEA ESTATE JOINT BODY DONATES 9 HOUSES TO SATEMWA PRIMARY SCHOOL (PLUS 6 TO OTHER SCHOOLS IN THYOLO

 12th May shall hardly be forgotten in the history of Satemwa Primary School. This day was when Teachers houses built using the Fair trade premium were officially handed over to the Satemwa Community through the school committee. Present at this function were among others: Mr. Cathcart Kay - Managing Director for Satemwa Estate, The Village Head woman Chidzinja, the Fair trade liaison officer for Malawi- Mr Aubrey Nyasulu, members of the joint body, school committee members and the teaching staff for the school plus Satemwa estate Managers.To express happiness, the function was characterized by traditional dances such as Gule wamkulu and Manganje.
In his speech the school committee chair said the community has expectations from the teachers now that they are going to be well hosed amongst them being: Government will send better and well qualified teachers to the school so that pupils of the school can benefit in return and be able to speak English which is the number one mod of business communication.
The Fair trade PSR for Malawi thanked the Satemwa MD for his commitment in ensuring that they live up to the Satemwa Social Responsibility program. He informed those present that for things to get to where they are today there is more to it. He gave an example of what the producer goes through in order to become Fair trade certified that enormous costs were incurred in the process.He rated Satemwa to be amongst the best Fair trade players.Finally asked the public to continue supporting Satemwa in order to sustain the Fair trade market.
The Headmaster of the school Mr. Mahere was all smiles as his teachers, including himself will now be staying in better houses. on behalf of other schools he thanked the Satemwa management and the Satemwa Joint Body for the Houses.
''Chip" briefly gave a background to Satemwa's Fair trade undertaking. He hinted that the company believes that ''No man is an island". meaning no one can work in isolation. He said that the Tea bush is a magical machine but does not work on its own. It requires people to work on it in order to derive required outcomes from it. It is with this background that Satemwa takes pride and commitment to support it workforce and the surrounding community, socially. He gave credit to the hard working workforce who have made all this possible to happen.
Went on to say that this idea can only be sustained if the Tea market was growing. He told the gathering that 1kg of made tea makes about 400 cups and wished more tea cups of the Satemwa tea were drunk thus more premium money and more such projects as the one being inaugurated.
He said his main ambition is to see to it that the nation especially children from the surrounding community get better education. As such he encouraged teachers to be dedicated and ensure English was given priority.

The Teacher's Houses project has been rated as one of the best premium funded projects by the Joint Body



In the picture, Mr Cathcart Kay, MD for Satemwa is cutting a ribbon to mark the official opening of Satemwa Teachers' Houses

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6 May 2011

FAIR TRADE PREMIUM FOOD SECURITY SUPPORT - LEADS TO BUMPER MAIZE HARVEST

It is maize harvesting time in the Southern Region of Malawi. In Thyolo people are now busy harvesting their maize from gardens. But the story is a bit different around Satemwa Estate especially to those who applied a basal dressing of 23:21:0 + 4S fertiliser sold out to workers of Satemwa Tea Estate at a slightly subsidised price.
One worker (Mr.Chimwala) I spoke to had this to say, ''Fertiliser are fertilisers but not all fertiliser are the same''. Several other workers are all smiles and thanks to Fair trade due to such livelihood support projects. The meaning here is that this particular product was quite different from other fertilisers of the same brand. The JB made sure to procure the fertiliser from a reputable source hence the utility realised was quite rewarding. comperatively people have harvested more than their last year harvest and the attribute is going to serveral factors: 1. The timely acquisition of the basal fertiliser, 2. The quality of the fertiliser. "We have managed to harvest more maize due to Fair trade support", is what most workers are saying. The issue here is that fertiliser is the most scare and unaffordable farm input to local farmers.Sometimes one would get it later than required, when the maize has passed the stage requiring such a product. Since maize is a fast and short period growing crop by the time one raises funds to buy it. The provision of it to workers had eased the pressure and enable them to apply fertiliser timely while they softly repaid for it. For this to be sustained there is need for a continuous fair trade market so the premium continues to come.

For more, log on to:www.satemwa.com

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