MSUWADZI ASSOCIATION GETS A VSO VOLUNTEER

Finally Smallholder Tea growers have been given permission to engage a VSO Volunteer thanks to the hard-working spirit of Mr. Kasitomu - Association President. It took him courage and time to travel up and down to Lilongwe trying to convince those concerned.

When the first volunteer couple (Mike and Penny) left without prospects for their replacement, life became uncertain as to how the Smallholder Tea Farmers were going to manage the Fairtrade Premium and their projects.

Matthew Strickland (VSO) is now settling in and we strongly hope the Msuwadzi Association will now have the capacity to manage its projects as well as having the ability to link up with other agents in order to leverage their financial base.

In addition, he will also be assisting the Satemwa Joint Body in areas of project identification and management as this happens to be his area of specialisation.

For more log onto: www.satemwa.com

Fairtrade Auditor visits Satemwa

Satemwa Tea Estate, Satemwa Workers Joint Body and Msuwadzi Smallholder Tea Growers Association have all been audited by the Fairtrade Association during the first week of June.

FLO-CERT, the auditing division of Fairtrade, visited all the fields and divisions of the smallholder farmers and the estate. They also reviewed all of the paperwork and interviewed workers.

In the final meeting FLO-CERT auditor Kennedy Chakanyuka congratulated the JB on all their projects. He said they showed genuine development and the positive impact that Fairtrade premium, through the JB, has made to the area. He highlighted the 6 new local bridges, clean water and the adult education classes as ‘very encouraging. Quite moving, really'.

But he reminded everybody that things must still improve, pointing out problems with the Smallholders record keeping and business planning, overtime issues in the security division, and that the newly elected JB members need to understand more about how it works.

Msuwadzi Chairman, Wilfred Custom, observed “it was the first time most of our members have met these people from Fairtrade. We didn’t believe we would get this far. Many of the growers were afraid and did not speak out in our meeting. They always say they don’t know anything about this and that, when they do. Most of us, you see, we are illiterate. We need help with our business planning. We face so many problems”

A VSO volunteer, Michael Shaw, helping Msuwadzi comments “This is just the first step. They will need training and support to keep up with Fairtrade Standards, otherwise they are made ‘non-compliant’ and risk suspension. The problem is that these global standards are tougher year-on-year, including requirements for complicated business strategies and planning documents. It will take years to reach the ‘year 1’ standards for most Malawian members, especially those who are illiterate, so we are trying to talk to FLO about making these more appropriate. Fairtrade is very new to Malawi and people here are at different development stages to those in South America, for example. This is why the most disadvantaged farmers in Malawi are failing to benefit from Fairtrade. They produce good crops, but they are illiterate.”