Launch of the Book Bag Company
The Book Bag Company is to be launched in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town, on 14th May 2005, World Fair Trade Day.
World Fair Trade Day is celebrated every second Saturday in May and is endorsed by the International Fair Trade Association (IFTA), the global authority on Fair Trade, comprised of 256 organisations from 60 countries around the world.
On 14th May 2005, events, rallies, seminars, fashion shows and product launches will take place around the world. In Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town, a new company that trades fairly with Bangladesh, will be launched.
The Book Bag Company is the brainchild of three women, Angela Everitt, Joy Cherkaoui and Ann le Mare, who visited fair trade village producer groups and alternative trading organisations in Bangladesh during February. Angela Everitt runs the first second-hand bookshop to open in Wigtown, Galloway, when it became Scotland’s National Book Town. Joy Cherkaoui is a community development worker in Dumfries & Galloway. Ann le Mare is undertaking research into fair trade in Bangladesh.
‘There is no doubt that fair trade makes a difference to people’s standards of living but it is also very clear that, for fair trade to really make a significant difference, more trading links need to be made. With this in mind, we are establishing a new company in Wigtown, The Book Bag Company.’
The Book Bag Company, a social enterprise, aims to contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh through fair trade and to the economic regeneration of Wigtown through enhancing employment opportunities.
According to the International Fair Trade Association (IFTA), Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers, especially in the South.
Initially, The Book Bag Company is importing and marketing to retail outlets:
* bags made from the natural fibre, jute, with retail names and logos printed on them to be marketed in Wigtown, fair trade towns and through bookshop networks;
* and-made paper appropriate for gift wrapping of books also to be marketed to bookshops.
Product development will include jute bags for a variety of other purposes: bread bags, wine bags, conference bags, school bags, for example.
‘We were really impressed that, in Bangladesh, such a poor country, plastic bags have been outlawed. In the grocer’s shop, we were given a muslin bag for our shopping. Hopefully, the book bags will help us replace plastic bags in the UK.’
The book bags are imported from CORR – the Jute Works, an alternative trading organisation in Bangladesh set up by Caritas in 1973 specifically to contribute to the rehabilitation of war-affected poor rural women of Bangladesh by providing them with opportunities for economic independence through the production of handicraft items from jute. Jute is a strong natural fibre grown in abundance in Bangladesh. It is more environmentally friendly than plastic and, being an annual crop, there is no permanent deforestation from its harvesting. CORR organises and trains poor rural women in village co-operative producer groups and secures markets for their products. The book bags are made by disabled women in Dhaka.
The hand-made paper is imported from the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Bangladesh which has been creating jobs for rural women-headed households since 1975. Its goal is that enterprises developed become strong enough to be independent. Products have been developed that use natural resources and are environmentally friendly. The Book Bag Company purchases hand-made papers suitable for gift wrapping books: one paper is made from jute, one from cotton, and another from water hyacinth, a troublesome plant which clogs up waterways in Bangladesh.
The launch of The Book Bag Company takes place in the County Buildings in Wigtown at lunchtime on World Fair Trade Day with Bangladeshi food provided by the local Indian restaurant which, like most ‘Indian’ restaurants, is run by a Bangladeshi man.
Check us out at our new web site www.bookbagcompany.com
Date posted: 26/04/2005