February Meeting

Meeting  notice

Date: Tuesday 7^th Feb. 2012

Place: Royal Oak, Cnr. Brisbane & Tamar Streets; upstairs in the Boardroom

Time: 6pm (Please arrive earlier to order any food and drinks at the bar before going up to the meeting.)

Meeting Agenda:

1. Reports and planning
2. Sub-groups to plan specific activities, some of which are listed on our Blog
3. Short Oxfam films & short discussions – people at the meeting can vote to choose from the following interest areas:

·         Close the Gap (Aboriginal health)
·         Fair Trade
·         Immunisation
·         Food security in East Timor
·         Climate change - action and information

Our Vision and Values

The Launceston Oxfam Group carries the same vision and values of Oxfam Australia.

Our Vision: A FAIR world in which people control their own lives, their basic rights are achieved and the environment is sustained.

Oxfam Australia aims to increase the number of people who have a sustainable livelihood, access to social services, an effective voice in decisions, equal rights and status, and safety from conflict and disaster.

The work of Oxfam Australia is a partnership through which Australians enable poor and marginalised people to control their own development, achieve equality, exercise their basic rights and ensure the environment is healthy and sustainable.

Our Values: The Group exists with Oxfam Australia to contribute to a fairer world to overcome poverty and injustice - challenging and changing the structural causes of poverty and empowering people to control their lives and achieve their human rights with long-term changes and sustainability.

Oxfam Australia wants to be -

• innovative, dynamic and bold;
• compassionate and committed;
• authoritative and influential;
• transparent, accountable and ethical;
• independent and secular; and
• effective, efficient and capable.

Product of the Day

Product of the day: [New in shop] Tara Projects (India) recycled glassware - assorted colours. Eric

What is Tara Projects?

Tara (Trade Alternative Reform Action) Projects has been working with craftspeople in the Delhi area since the 1970's, with the aim to alleviate poverty through fighting widespread exploitation in the handicraft industry. It now works with 25 community-based groups of artisans.

Tara members are involved in production and marketing (local and export) of handicrafts with the aim to improve the livelihood and eduction of the producers. Tara ensures its artisans are paid at least 15% above the normal wage, paying them up to 50% above standard wages when it can. The producers work within registered cooperative societies; other groups which are not yet registered but operate on just and fair lines, and/or small family workshops are also given some help.

Tara Projects focuses especially on stopping child exploitation, setting up schools and training parents in skills that will help them find a job, so that families will not need to send their children to work. 

Tara Projects' products: The producer groups working with Tara produce a wide variety of products including soapstone boxes, brass candlesticks, boxes and statues and various iron products, such as bells. Making bells, originally to hang around the necks of their animals, is an ancient tribal craft art going back thousands of years in northern India. 

The bells are fashioned from a mix of new and used iron, then sprinkled with glass powder and brass, covered with a pulp clay and jute and fired for 12 hours using coal and cow dung for fuel (the "rasai" process). After cooling in water the blackened clay is removed leaving a golden patina that ages beautifully, and imparts the sonorous musical quality of the bells.

Today, the fastest growing craft for Tara is fashion jewellery, developing a creative as well as economic industry for young women and men struggling to make a living in the urban sprawl of New Delhi.

Tara Projects is a member of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT).

Meeting Times for 2012

Hi all,

following on from our recent meetings, we discussed finding a regular meeting time so we can pop this in our diary for the year. Of course, there may be changes depending on whether things come up, eg guest speakers, but to get us started lets find the time that suits most people, most of the time.

We are setting up a Blog Poll to determine the most suitable day. We have nominated the first week of each month but this can be discussed when next we meet. If the best day for a meeting is a weekday, then we are assuming it is around 6pm. If a Saturday is chosen, then we will have another poll to work out the best time.

The poll closes Monday 30th January at 5pm in time for our February meeting.

To access this and vote, click on the Blog Poll icon. You are most welcome to leave your comment and/or view on the day you have selected on the 'comments' box below.

Thanks, Eric and Mara

Products of the Day

Product of the day: I vote for Kylie Kwong and her range of kitchenware which you can purchase from our local Oxfam shop. Eric

Product Story: Kylie, who is an Ambassador for the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, felt the proposal was a natural extension of her advocacy on the issue. The idea quickly moved on to Kylie creating the first design scheme for the range, and Oxfam’s product team translating these into ceramic designs and working with the producers to develop and finesse samples.

In March 2011, Kylie travelled to Vietnam with Oxfam to meet the producers in person, finalise the designs and see firsthand how the fair trade system is working, including the benefits these workers receive. Kylie drew upon her own graphics background to come up with the striking “Lotus” range, which comprises soup and rice bowls with matching plates, a soup spoon, a teapot and teacup and a coffee cup.

The ceramic exterior of the range is charcoal-coloured and features a hand-painted pink lotus flower design, while the inner surface of the range is a deep jade green.

“I wanted to create a design that was not only aesthetically pleasing but which also had great depth and a wonderful story to it,” Ms Kwong said.

“As part of my inspiration I looked towards the symbol of the lotus flower. To me the lotus is such a deep and meaningful symbol, which represents femininity, spirituality, and the importance of nature and the environment.”

Watch Kylie Kwong in Vietname here.

Link: Oxfam