New products are arriving daily into Oxfam Ireland’s four Fair Trade shops. And this is just the beginning – we will be getting new shipments regularly from now til Christmas.  Here’s just a taster of some of the great new things that arrived this week:

Set of 3 Bangles €15.00 / £12.00

New jewellery can be just the thing to update an existing outfit, like this set of three textured bangles from Manjeen in India

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Rafique Ahmed

Tributes from many Fair Trade organizations have been paid to Rafique Ahmed, who died suddenly last month. Rafique was a wood carver in Saharanpur in northern India.  Oxfam Ireland Fair Trade has purchased products from his workshop, U.P. Dastakar through our partner in India, Asha Handicrafts, since 2003.

Rafique’s workshop created and produced a wide variety of wood products from sheshamwood ranging from walking sticks to flutes to bowls, but he will be remembered primarily for his two signature items – an eyeglass holder in the shape of a nose, and a cat ’secret’ box. Oxfam Ireland alone sold hundreds of these two items over the last several years, and they were best sellers for many other Fair Trade organizations around the world as well.

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Aakriti Arts workshop, Delhi

As Oxfam Ireland’s Fair Trade Manager, I am lucky enough to be able to visit some of our artisan partners. In June I visited several producers in India.

India in June was hot – 47 degrees hot. Everywhere I went in the heat artisans were working to complete orders – weaving, carving, painting, sewing. And everywhere I went the artisans were talking about how the global recession has affected their business; since people in America and Europe are buying less in these difficult economic times, producers are receiving smaller orders. Artisans in India and elsewhere are often paid by the piece, so smaller orders translates immediately into lower income. And that can mean less food on the table or not sending their children to school. And just as here, prices are rising too, putting additional strain on artisans and their families.

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Oxfam has great Fair Trade products for Father’s Day – whether you get him something quirky for the garden, or something useful for the office, it’s all fairly traded and ethical.

Click the image to see the products.