Attending WorldFairTrade day

Earlier Today, I attended an event orgniazed by Fairtrade Winnipeg. This event was organised @ Ten Thousand Village store, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Manitoba Council for Intranational Cooperation (MCIC) was also sharing their work during this event. I heard about Fairtrade and the product of Fair Trade through (MCIC) an organisation I had connection for the last few years.

Manitoba Council for International Cooperation(MCIC) is an organisation working with Manitoba government, local and international organisation working in humanitarian and development area.

I heard about MCIC and their work I think in 2016. One day, I was taking to one of my Friend from University of Winnipeg. I basically was talking to him about my project, A Journey back to Sedika from Winnipeg and the fundraiser event we were organising. In the middle of our conversation, he asked me if I know about MCIC and their programs? . I basically didn't, because it was the first time I heard about them.

He then recommended me to connect with them. So , I took a note and planed to go and find out about their programs.

By the way, the project , "A Journey Back to Sedika from Winnipeg" was designed and launched here in Winnipeg in August, 2015. This project was designed with the hope of supporting Sedika Elementary school , Ethiopia .

So , as I indicated I planed to go talk to people from MCIC. I did, one day I went to their office to learn about them and to share about my project. The person I met, happened to be the executive director of the Organisation. She provide me all the information I needed about the funding programs, the procedure of application process to access these funds. I remember the excitement and the enthusiasm I had when I was given the information about MCIC and its programs for I knew this is what I was looking for. I was looking for people who would be interested in my project , and the idea of my project.

during this time I was given all the necessary information about the programs including the dates of the information session, the application procedure. So, I marked the day , and came back for the information session. During this time I learned more about the programs , and its application process, the requirement I need to fulfill to apply for those funds.

I applied for the grant available under Community Solidarity Fund . The first step was to write a grant proposal. I wrote the grant proposal for my project right after. I wrote the proposal and applied for 2016/17 physical budget year.

Off course , I didn't succeed in receiving the grant for my proposal . However , I continued to learn more about the program and continued to work to improve my proposal. I received many advices, guidance by MCIC staffs in writing my proposal for the next one. Along the line I also attended some workshops organised by MCIC that will help anyone to write grant proposal.

Then, I applied again for the 2017/18 budget year . This time it worked , my proposal was accepted and became recipient of $6000 Canadian dollar through the Community Solidarity Fund. All I can say is thanks to MCIC for providing this grant.

I believe the support we received from MCIC was vital in achieving the project objective that we set when design the project.Therefore , again I want to extend my appreciation to MCIC and all other people who supported the project..

The main objectives of our project is to provide Childers in Sedika Elementary school and beyond to have access to basic school supplies, and other educational aid materials. And, also to support children to have access to support system that will help them succeed in their studies and in life. My relationship with MCIC grew stronger through the years for I was able to attend many events they organised , and I was able to learn many of the things they stand and advocate for. Now , here I am learning more about the Fairtrade and fare trade products. The first thing I learned about Fair Trade became the first reason that motivated me learn more about Fair Trade. I learned Fair Trade is working to provide platform(Market) for the products produced by local farmers , and small scale industry workers in developing countries here in Canada. That means FairTrade is working to bring the producer of the products and the customer . The main idea of Fair trade I believe is to support the producer, farmers, and small scale industry workers to sell their products here in Canada ,and in return help them get fair amount of return for their product .This will only happen when organisations or people who support the Fair Trade help facilitate opening market place for producer and the people who buy their products.

It is great learning experience. I am learning more about Fair Trade, fair Trade products , and place where people would buy Fair Trade products here in Winnipeg , and other cities in Canada. I learned about the place called Ten Thousand Village , a place where all the products are fair trade products. I am grateful to learn about this and play my role to contribute the cause.

It was a great learning experience .