This fundraiser has the ambitious goal of raising £70,000 to create a fairer, more sustainable world.
To achieve this there are 4 beneficiaries to the money raised, each one a worthy organisation based in Asia or Africa, which aims to tackle environmental and economical issues to create a better world.
The inspiration behind this goal is Jeremy Piercy, Founder of Shared Earth. Shared Earth was founded in 1986 and is one of the UK's largest fair trade retailers and wholesalers, creating 1000s of jobs for artisans from around the world, many from the disadvantaged communities living in poverty.
Inspired by his travels in India, after leaving school, Jeremy wanted to do something to help redress the imbalance of wealth in the world, work together with people from different cultures, and at the same time earn a living.
On 23 December Shared Earth’s founder Jeremy Piercy will be 70, yes, 70.
To mark this memorable event, Jeremy came up with the idea to raise £70,000 to help create a fairer, more sustainable world.
The Zuri Foundation is delighted to join this inspiring fundraiser. Thank you very much for your support of our latest fundraiser.
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, and also one of the worst affected by climate change. For years, the Sahara desert has been encroaching into its agricultural land, making once fertile land no longer viable to live on. Flash floods, a shorter rainy season and soaring temperatures have forced thousands of villagers to leave their homes and migrate south.
Joliba Trust works on grassroots projects in 350 villages in Mali, stabilising sand dunes to recover land, planting trees, improving crop yields, promoting pasture regeneration and even recovering desert where nothing will grow. Trees grow far faster than in Europe, and many provide fruits, leaves, nuts and branches which can be used for food, cattle fodder and income generation.
Joliba achieves a huge amount at very low cost. It has just one low-paid worker in the UK, most of its work being done by local people in Mali. Admin costs are minimal. And for a donation of £10/month, a whopping 1,300 trees can be planted in Mali, ten times as many as this sum could buy in the UK!
For more information on this beneficiary https://www.jolibatrust.org.uk/
Sungai Watch is a new charity in Bali, which builds river barriers to prevent plastic flowing into the oceans, South-east Asia being a ‘hotspot’ for this problem. Global corporations wrap more and more products in single-use plastic, and even in towns and cities, waste collection services are often non-existent or minimal. Waste is often burnt, or ends up in the streams and rivers.
Sungai Watch has built 180 barriers in Bali, collecting over 1 million kg of plastic in just 2 years. It also runs community clean-ups each week at illegal dumps, beaches and along riverbanks. Everything is recycled, or composted.
Detailed records are kept of each plastic wrapper or bottle collected, and the charity then writes to the companies whose brands appear most often, pushing them to find less harmful alternatives.
A donation of £300/month will pay for a barrier on a new river, potentially collecting 5,000kg of plastic in its first year alone.
For more information please visit https://sungai.watch/
Transform Trade is the new name for Traidcraft Exchange. It partners with farmers, workers and artisans to help them benefit from more sustainable and equitable trade. Traidcraft plc went into receivership early in 2023 and Transform Trade has set up a Producers’ Fund to support the most marginalised artisans, including those affected by loss of orders as a result of Traidcraft’s sad demise.
These include for instance Prokritee in Bangladesh, which supports 1,500 artisans in rural areas, using sustainable materials such as palm leaf, rice straw and recycled sari; and Meru Herbs in Kenya, whose largest buyer was Traidcraft.
Whether it’s training, equipment, product development or market access, Transform Trade, which has local offices in India, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Kenya, can work on the ground to support the smallest producer groups who need help most.
For more information https://www.transform-trade.org/
Sjahlendra Handicrafts is a new Fair Trade/eco business in Bali, part-owned by producers, which aims to provide security to artisans and their families, who are struggling to survive in the absence of regular orders for their products. They use local, sustainable raw materials such as bamboo and albesia wood; coconut, tree roots and driftwood; and recycled glass, paper and textiles. Minimal machinery and energy usage means you can’t get much better in terms of carbon emissions.
The women are in charge… They own and run 65% of the 30-odd producer groups, with 15% run by husband/wife teams and 20% by men. The CEO of Sjahlendra Handicrafts is also a woman.
At present the artisans rely on Shared Earth for their orders. We’re going to build a showroom in Ubud, Bali’s craft centre, to attract commercial buyers: a one-stop shop for eco and Fair Trade products, including, we hope, a café and rooms at the back for visitors. Any profits will be used to further the interests of the producers.
A donation of £100/month would buy the space for a producer group of 6 or 7 artisans to display their products, equivalent to a year’s worth of orders for an artisan and their family. This showroom will potentially give extra work for 1,000 artisans and their families, for many years to come!
For more information: https://www.sharedearth.co.uk
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