Fair Trade - Follow up after the walk

Friends, I feel the time is right to provide a bit of an update to all the cool Fair Trade related things that have happened and are happening.

The response after the walk has been robust. The group in Pondicherry has been robustly following it with the formation of a steering group to chalking out activities by taking advantage of various events that are significant in the Pondicherry calender.

1) The water festival in Pondicherry started off with a rousing reception, colourful activities directly involving the community. "Fair Trade Twin Towns" is currently riding this wave.

2) At the Pondicherry Heritage event a stall with interactive engagement is in the making. Many links and actions are expected from this. A similar activity is planned for the Auroville Marathon on the 13/14 Feb where thousands of participants expected.

3)A range of organic, FT , and other fair trade potential outfits are going to be on the 19/20/21 of Februrary at the Gandhi Thidal in Pondicherry. A first of its kind event called Fair trade expo with multiple actors and activities is planned for profiling fair trade town Initiatives and presenting fair trade work in Tamil Nadu and India as a whole.

4) A substantial meeting at Auroville was completed with an intense two day preparation by the steering group. The meeting was well received. At the National level, preparation for setting up a National steering committee is in full swing. Currently, four people have been identified and a few more are being seeked. Three meetings of the present National steering group has taken route with a draft charter for the National steering being prepared.

5) Fair trade India advisor is actively seeking, communicating,linking and communicating about the various actions with a major address about fair trade work to the Rotary Central in Chennai and to the Pondicherry university planned during February.