12th May 2013

Fair Trade Day in Dhaka

A big thank you to Ecota for organising a very good celebration of Fair Trade Day in Dhaka. The programme was held at St. Joseph’s School and College premises and 250 students were present to celebrate the day and learn more about Fair Trade.

The programme started with one minute’s silence to commemorate the terrible loss of life in the Rana Plaza building collapse in Savar. Shah Abdus Salam,tThe Chairman of Ecota then inaugurated the day and described the story of fair trade in the world and in Bangladesh. The principal of St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, Dr. Harold Rodrigues, was the chief guest and also gave a speech. There was then a short documentary filem on fair trade and then Angela, who manages the Ecota office in Bangladesh gave a presentation. It was particularly nice that presentations were also given by some of the artisans and Moyna, one of the Pebble/Hathay Bunano samplers, gave an interesting account of her work and experience.

The day ended with cultural activities and there were some very nice displays of products made by many of the fair trade groups in Bangladesh. Thank you to Ecota Fair Trade Forum for organising such a nice event.