An ethical present for your Valentine?

I guess by now most folk are contemplating what sort of gift to buy their loved ones for Valentine's Day.We have a range of handmade and ethical fashion accessories for all. Please vsiit our website www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk


By buying our products you will not only show your loved that you care but that you care about those that are less fortunate than you are. This creates a WIN, WIN situation for all.

I would also like to tell you about what you purchase means to the women in Africa or the financial implications for them, so here are some statics,

8p feeds a child a day
£10 pays for a teacher for a whole month
£250- keeps a young girl/man in secondary school for a year
£250- will keep a nusery school of 30 children open for 6 months
£30 pays for a community nurse for a whole month
£5 pays for a mosquito net to prevent malaria

We are looking forward to your your support and just for Valentines postage is free (will be refunded)


bread basket from Uganda

Fair Trade Week

The idea behind Fair Trade as far as I understand is to ensure that farmers in the developing world get a fair price for their produce.

But my question today is who decides what is included on the list and what isn't?

For instance in November 2007 I attended an event and happened to sit next to a guy from the Fair Trade organisation. I asked him how the female producers at Ethnic supplies could go about registering with Fair Trade. He looked me in the eye and told me that Textile and handicrafts are not included.

I asked him why and did he realise that he was possibly excluding two thirds of the world’s population from the opportunity of earning a fair wage for their hard work?

This is a figure I plucked out of the air and has no basis in fact per se, but I just wanted to make a point which was that if that is how Fair Trade operates then surely it is an unfair system?

Something else that troubles me is the fact that something like coffee leaves the developing world as a raw material and at that stage it is not worth a lot. The coffee houses in the west process it and add value, and charge whatever they like.

Is that fair or ethical even? How do governments in the developing worlds generate tax, if the real value of something like coffee is not realised until it hits the coffee houses?

I am by no means an expert at these things and I am merely raising them to generate discussion and debate.

Would a system that allowed value addition at base be a much better system for all? It works well here at Ethnic Supplies. Our ladies take whatever they can find useless grasses etc and turn them into these beautiful and useful items


this basket for instance is made from papyrus and raffia, the colour is achieved form dyes found in the root plants I am not aware that any of those raw materials being traded as commodities. However a finished basket like this enables a woman to send her child to school, pay for health care and could be the difference between the family going hungry or not. It makes an excellent bread basket and or bathroom tidy



This table runner is produced from combining raffia and cotton and the colours are from roots of plants. What is exciting about suing cotton in this way is that cotton farmers in Africa in particular were hit with an increase in second hand clothes that are donated by well wishers in the west but end up in markets being sold for very little, not to mention the subsidies that are given to cotton farmers in the US

£ 1 for the deserving poor

I came across this article and it got me thinking about the whole notion of the deserving poor. As a Social Housing Practioner, this is a term I have come across many a times in books and articles that chart the history of social Housing in Great Britain.

The philanthropists referred to in this article are all too familiar, Octavia Hill, William Sutton etc are some of the pioneers of social housing for the deserving poor. If you walk through areas of Marylebone in London signs of Octavia Hill’s philanthropic activities are still visible today.

I must admit that, this notion of the “deserving poor” has left me a little unsettled in far as my own views are concerned and I couldn’t help but wonder whether I too practice according to that notion.

In my time a Housing Manager I looked after a traveller’s site owned by the local authority I worked for at the time. I visited the site one afternoon and on my way out I found a £1 on the through road. I put it in my pocket and went back to the office. As I left the office that evening I came across one of our tenants who regularly sat on the bench outside our office and consumed can after can of beer or cider. I remembered the £1 I had found on the Travellers site and I wondered whether I should give it to him, Christmas was only two days away and I thought he probably needed this pound more than I did. I however very quickly changed my mind as I thought he will only go and buy more alcohol!

I greeted him and walked on. I drove to my local supermarket and found an Eastern European woman at the entry selling the “Big Issue” magazine. I promptly reached into my pocket and gave her the pound I had found. I decided that she deserved this pound more than the man outside our offices because she was doing something to help herself.

This is the same concept I employ at Ethnic Supplies, seek out women who are doing something to help themselves out of poverty and help them access world wide markets with their wares.

Is wrong therefore for international donors to insist on good governance in those countries that Aid is given?

Although I wholly subscribe to the idea of good governance in African countries and in fact fully believe that some of the challenges the continent faces today are down to bad/poor governance, I had not entirely considered the link between, International Aid, the notion of good governance.

In my mind it does make sense that unless there are structures in place to ensure that the Aid goes to the people for whom it is intended then the poor of the developing world will continue to miss out. These structures are part of good governance/administration.

This raises another question for me, how realistic is it for donor countries to insist on good governance as a condition of Aid, and what exactly is meant by good governance in this respect? My understanding of good governance, in this respect amounts to accountability and openness, both of which are routed in trust, trust by the people of those charged with administering the Aid.

How then can good governance be achieved? A quick short answer is “with great difficulty” This is due to that word again “Trust”, in his book Being Afrikan Mandivamba Rukuni puts forward an often overlooked view of why this Trust may elude many African nations. The scramble and partition of Africa displaced peoples from areas of origin and brought together people that for instance do not speak the same language and differ in culture; an example of this is seen in North and southern Sudan, North and Southern Uganda etc.

In my mind this created a form of prejudice “tribalism” and this is a huge contributing factor to the lack of good governance. Different tribes with nothing in common per se other than belonging to a border created by imperialism where thrown together, which makes it near impossible for trust and harmony to exist.

One would argue that, that is a long time ago and surely it is time to move on. I would agree with that point of view entirely as it is unlikely that history can be reversed, but it is not up to me and I suspect I am in the minority with this point view as was evidenced in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections earlier this year.

We as Africans can certainly work on unity and trust if we are committed to and I strongly believe that would go a long way in resolving some of the challenges the continent faces. Trust in each other, trust in our governments etc? Could this also be the answer to the “brain Drain” touched on by the article?

The Commonwealth countries league fair in Kensington

Their charitable arm supports girls in the commonwealth through secondary

Please drop in and support them tickets are only £3 for a whole day of fun
and education of course.

Girls are still excluded from formal edcaution in certain quarters of the world and this means that they face a life of poverty for the rest of their lives. Given teh important role that women play in eceonomic development of African countires in particular I strongly believe that it is vital that they get a good start in life.

Further details are at



Hope to see you there

Have you ever seen a coffee tree?

Yes, Maybe, No,, does coffee grow on trees, well what do you think?

I don't know I buy mine at the supermarket!


This is a coffee tree and it in Besi's veg patch. It takes 4 years from the point of planting to the point of bearing fruit (the coffee beans)Besi doesn't grow enough to sell but were she to sell, she would earn 50pence per kilo. Her tree is for personal use.




This is the other side of Besi's vegetable patch. Here she grows bananas and for the benefit of those that have never seen a banana tree that is what it looks like. She grows other vegetables too and if she has more than what she needs she swaps with Mary and the others



In this village children do not normally go to school until they are 7 years old. The villagers felt that this as not ideal situation and thanks to their friend
Ann McCarthy their dream of having a nursery school. It is not quite finished as the floor is yet to go don and there are no windows. It is however usable, and on Ann's last visit she had a go at taking a class of 30 children for a whole afternoon!



This is a camping space outside the nursery school and doubles as a play area too.




This is papyrus, it is the main raw material in basket weaving and useful for making mats. This fascinates me because on it's own it is useless but with the concept of value addition it brings financial independence to Besi and the other women in the village




This is a temporary youth centre where the young people come to watch TV and video. It also double as a village hall, and although it is not completed in any sense they have electricity and oh those mats are made out papyrus.

Would you like to learn more or support our efforts in this village?

If so please drop me a note

Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty

They are people in the world that find themselves in circumstances beyond their control. Something that is unique about these people is that they are resilient, friendly and welcoming and above all they do not ask for much.

I have recently returned from Uganda and was fortunate to visit such people, and it is the best holiday I have ever had. A particular community I visited is in a remote village in SW Uganda and they are in dire need of clean water. This is not an unrealistic expectation in my mind after all we expect to turn on the taps and get clean, germ and bacteria free water.

The current situation is that the women and children walk down the hills that you can see on my profile photgraphs to get dirty water, they carry it back the hill and walk down again to fetch firewood to enable them to boil the water on an open fire to rid it of germs and bacteria. This process takes up to 3 hours and understandably they are so exhausted by the end of it that they skip the bit where they have to go down the hill to fetch the firewood and they use the untreated water.

As a result of this those with compromised immune systems such as the children, elderly or the sick cannot survive.

With this in mind I have got together with a few friends to do something about this water situation. We have had the a quote for the cost of getting clean water in and that stands at £8000-£10000. this is not an awful lot of money in the scheme of things especially as that it would bring clean water to over 10,000.

We have a fundraising event at the Hilton Hotel in Cobham Surrey on 17 Oct 2008 to kick start this effort. We however haven't had much luck with ticket sales thus far and ironically stand to pay a cancellation fee of £4000 to teh hotel!

Can you help us? I sincerely hope so.

Further details are at www.lethemhelpthemselves.com/events

Food distribution in Uganda

The debate on food availability and distribution world wide continues and has gathered pace. The increase in the price of oil as far as I can tell has impacted on the cost and distribution of food.

On my recent trip to Uganda I travelled extensively throughout the country and came across people without food and others with too much of it.

I for instance visited a school at the source of the River Nile in a town called Jinja and the teachers told me that they had a food problem as the World Food programme had discontinued the school's food programme because the area where the school is located cannot be characterised as being short of food.

The World Food programme was not wrong in it's assertion, the missing link here is how to get the food to the school or the school should start a food growing programme within it's grounds.

In Western Uganda, I found all sorts of food, fruit and vegetable, bananas, carrots, cauliflowers,onions, aubergines, peppers, oranges, peas, peanuts, potatoes and sweet potatoes as well as cattle ranches, and herds of goats.

You travel elsewhere and there is no food at all. What surprised me too was the discovery of peas donated by the Canadian government as part of the Food Aid programme to Rwanda on sale in Ugandan fruit and veg markets!

I have long argued that we never really know where whatever it is we donate here in West goes and here was my proof! What was interesting the chap selling these peas was also selling Uganda grown peas but for a higher price than those from Canada

Another obstacle in the food distribution here is the lack of refrigeration storage and other preserving methods. You then have a feast and famine type of situation where in some months food is abundant and in others there is not enough. The people have no means of preserving food for those months when it is less abundant




Matoke, (kind of banana) this is staple food in Uganda and there were lots of it in west and East Uganda but really expensive in central Uganda


Organic tomatoes on a fruit and veg stall in western Uganda, I was surprised to note that the whole lot cost a mere £2


Avocados on a fruit and veg market in Western Uganda





long horned cattle in Western Uganda

Poverty at the source of the Nile

School Kitchen and cook




Earlier in the summer I came across Street Child Africa a Thames Ditton based charity working to tackle the issue of street children in Africa and the issues that they face.

The person I met asked if I would consider being "their friend" ? Yes that would be an honour. Friends do each other favours now and again, so It was that when they learned I was heading out to UG they asked me to do them a huge favour of inspecting their project in Jinja a town at the source of the Nile.

I set off at 7.30am on a cold and rainy spring morning and by 9.00am I was at the source of the Nile. I was struck by the poverty in this place in comparison to the landscape. Given the amount of rain here, the vegetation is lush and green, the Nile is almost bursting at the seams.

Having met a rep from the Street child Africa local project we headed 3 KM out of town and arrived at a tiny school that should not accommodate more than 200 students but was accommodating 1300, with each class holding at least 80 children. 300 of these children are from a traveling tribe called the Karamajong and often end up on the streets. The authorities do not want them there but never do anything to support them, another 50 are from child headed households and these are directly supported by Street Child Africa.

My visit here has been anticipated for sometime, I am told and perhaps I would come with answers to some of the issues they were grappling with! The worst thing one can do here is promise that which they cannot deliver!

I quickly set the record straight and explain my background and how it was that I was standing in front of them. Their response was very humbling indeed and reminded me why I set up Ethnic supplies in the first place.

We know you may not have the financial means to resolve our problems, but at least you are able to present them realistically to the rest of the world, and you can speak on our behalf they said!

Incredibly the school was at some point a beneficially of the world food programme but was dropped because this area of UG does not suffer from food shortages. This is true but the school does not grow it's won food and has to buy it in, which make it very expensive.

2.5 hours later I was back at the Nile specifically Bujagali Falls a spectular water fall that forms part of the River Nile. I sat here for sometime and contemplate on the events of the past few hours.



bujagali falls

There is an irony about this place too , tourist come here for the thrills of white water rafting, quad bike rides, country walks in the most amazing scenery but the villages surrounding this beauty are so poor I can't find the words to describe the situation here realistically. The frustration or the villagers' circumstances stare out at you as you drive through the villages.

There is no formal housing to speak of, instead a lot straw thatched and mud hats, that could catch fire any minute!.

Next time you are Jinja stop by Masese School they will be pleased to see you, please take some pens if you can, Barclays bank will give them to you for free!



school washrooms

The case for Clean Water

According to a recent programme on BBC Radio 4's programme Excess Baggage 74% of the world is covered in water. That being the case, why is there such a shortage of water in some parts of the world

Let us take a look at Uganda in East Africa, it is described as the Pearl of Africa because of it's beauty but and in my mind part of this beauty is the numerous Rivers, Lakes and Springs that run through it.

However not all of this water is clean nor it is suitable to domestic use, amongst other things it harbors mosquitoes larvae, Bilharzia etc, making it dangerous to children, old people and those with compromised immune systems.

It is for that reason that a few Friends and I have got together to get clean water into a Ruhanga a village in SW Uganda. In order to achieve this we need £6000. We have a fundraising event for this purpose and hope that you can support us. Further details about the event and the project in Ruhanga are at www.lethemhelpthemselves.com


Village Well- note how dirty that water is



Villagers in search of clean water