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Matt James runs fingerprint-recognition technology firm UKB Security »
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Marion Bernard is from NorthStar Equity Investors »
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Paul Williamson is Senior Partner at Deloitte »
Stephen Hall is Tax Partner at Deloitte »Well after a long day yesterday - 12 hours of report writing and working through baselines, evaluation forms and training reports - I was more than happy to be out and about visiting producers again today.
We set off bright and early, around 8am to visit the first group of the day, Cards from Africa. I mentioned this group on my blogs from my last trip in January this year. I couldn't wait to meet again with Arthur, the manager to see how they had progressed over the last six months and to check out their new designs. I was not disappointed.
Arthur got chairs for Joan and me and we sat outside under a tree, sheltering from the intense heat of the African sun to hear about how they are doing.
Arthur was pleased that we were visiting during their busy season so we could see the organisation and production line at full throttle. People were busy everywhere we looked, soaking recycled paper to make the card, dying the materials and then finally making the designs.
The room was buzzing and this is an excellent example of fair trade at its finest.
All of the workers at Cards from Africa are genocide survivors and on top of that they are all from orphan headed households.
Arthur told us how much the training meant to him and his organisation.
Steven Kagarama (another employee that attended) said: "I learnt how to gather information on our workers, for example whose children go to school and whose do not. This information is important as it will provide us with knowledge about how we can better assist our workers; understand the challenges they are going through.
"The most important thing for me was that I learnt the practical implementation of the information provided and skills taught and how to bring this into the business. This was very interesting for me."
We also met with Rachel, the lady we carried out a Shared Interest Foundation case study on in January. She is doing very well and was happy to hear that we had shared her story. She is extremely busy just now working on a big order and says that she likes working at Cards from Africa as she gets to learn new things and spend her days among friends.
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