Making the World Beautiful
Around 400 supporters and staff met in St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London, to celebrate 25 years of Traidcraft's fight against poverty through trade. Among them was Towera Jalakasi of Business Consult Africa, Malawi.
Towera, whose name means "makes the world beautiful", spoke of visiting a rural village in Malawi during a time of famine. She had gone to pay basketmakers an advance, but towards the end of the visit was approached by a destitute man who had pleaded for payment, even although he was not one of the regular basket-makers. She agreed to pay him a small amount, but when she returned to the village to collect the baskets, he failed to turn up.
Other villagers told her that shortly after her previous visit,-the man had collapsed and died from hunger and fatigue, attempting to carry home the small amount of maize he had been able to buy for his family.
"I cried then," Towera said, "not for him, but for the 360 people in front of me. What would have happened to them if there had been no order from Traidcraft?"
"Their only hope at that time was the money they were getting from Traidcraft. It was not me, it was not the Malawian government, it was Traidcraft money that saved those people. The work that you are doing is saving souls throughout the world. You are making the world beautiful through trade."
