Looking Back and Looking Forward - Nicola

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

My name is Nicola and I have been with JTS for 2.5 years now. I started as the Admin Assistant and so if you have ever phoned our office in that time, no doubt we will have spoken at some point. I am now the Customer Relationship Manager and this is a job with many challenges but also brings much satisfaction, however I will be even more satisfied when the brown rice and organic coconut milk arrives! I love the ethos of JTS and really embrace what it stands for and what it is trying to achieve which, in a nutshell, is to work for justice and fairness for smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia, empowering them to develop their farms and communities, to bring food security and prosperity to their countries and to build a safer more sustainable world.

I am particularly inspired by the stories I hear from our producers and the intense hard work they have to endure on a daily basis, it takes superhuman effort for these farmers to earn a living. As today is International Women’s Day, I would like to use my blog to highlight two of the producers we partner with who focus on empowering women in their communities – Meru Herbs of Kenya and Eswatini of The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland – I like to think that the products are so good that they decided to name the country after them 😊)

Meru Herbs

Meru Herbs produce an exceptional range of ‘all natural’ jams and sauces made from the freshest herbs and most succulent fruits in the fertile soils of Mount Kenya (is your mouth watering yet?). It is a women led organisation in rural Kenya who are dedicated to the Principles of Fair Trade with a mission to:

• Empower Women
• Alleviate Poverty
• Improve their Standards of Living

At the moment we import two sauces (Tomato & Basil and Tomato & Chilli) and two jams (Hibiscus and Papaya & Lemon) – the Tomato and Basil Sauce is a family favourite in my house and I always have a box in the cupboard for those nights when I just don’t know what to make for dinner, it is so versatile and easy to use in a number of dishes. My sons love it with meatballs and spaghetti, guess what’s for dinner tonight!

Eswatini

You may already know quite a bit about Eswatini as we have partnered with them even before JTS was founded. Our relationship with them has grown from strength to strength over the years and they remain very close to our hearts. I’m sure you know a lot of the Eswatini products, the jams, marmalades, chutneys, atchars and sauces; so as this is International Women’s Day I want to do a special mention for Sonia Paiva who is the Managing Director of Eswatini. Sonia is a formidable business woman and has won all All-Africa award as the leading woman entrepreneur in the field of agriculture and is also the first female Managing Director in her country, so she is a real beacon of hope to other women all around the world. Sonia also founded the Woman Farmer Foundation who’s mandate is to improve women’s incomes and promote sustainable livelihoods through agriculture. The Foundation focuses on women and youth empowerment and aim to equip, promote and advance through expanding their knowledge base, information dissemination and education and training in farming techniques. Every woman trained is required to pass this knowledge onto another woman farmer thereby allowing them to set up co-operatives and new enterprises and give everyone the same opportunity to learn, improve and increase their yields.

So these are two very inspiring women led / focused organisations to think about for International Women’s Day. We would love to see them grow and develop and realise their full potential in order that they can help more women work their way out of poverty towards a more sustainable livelihood. Ultimately, we want to provide them with a brighter future and the way we do that is by providing a market here in the UK for their products.

So please continue to support them by buying their products and give them the opportunity to thrive rather than just survive.