Participants involved in a game
On August 2, the producer organizations KKM, Dekyiling Handicraft Centerand Tibetan Women Centre were informed about the workshop to be held 6:th and 7:th of August with a clear instructions that it’s for the artisans. The work-shop was about the ten principles of Fair Trade and how they are affected by them.
The Resource person from Fair Trade Forum -India, Mrs Alka, wanted about 25 artisans in each group.
So, in IMEX, there are 17 people and I decided to invite 5 artisans each from TWC and Dekyiling. But with KKM, I asked in person to the management if it would be possible to select 25 artisans for the workshop. And they said if they select some and leave the others, the latter might wonder why they were not selected. Mrs Alka also thought if we select on our own, it will be a kind of discrimination. So, I left all the decision to KKM management. Hence, the workshop was for all the artisans. Even though the artisans were not told in specific terms but the master weaver were told that it’s a workshop.
We had more than 25 participants at the beginning but ended up with more than 15 participants at the end. And most of them participated with a willingness to learn something. Some of them came up to me and said it’s good that we are discussing about our roles and responsibility, quality checking and customers too. So, I was quite happy with what I saw. Artisans came as they wanted to and left also. There were no rules to conform to.
At the end of the day, I am quite happy with the response/feedback that I received. To tell the truth, I had no expectations whatsoever in percentage wise- bothering about how it will turn out. Sometimes, the satisfaction that you get after doing something is far greater than doing the expectation calculation.
/Tsering Youdon Fair Tradecoordinator for IM-SOIR
