Grace Mwagi, Blumenarbeitern @Karen Roses, Ravine Roses Kenya 2020 Producer quote/information: "I’m Grace, I work at Karen Rosen Limited and I am a mother of 3, two boys and one daughter. I live nearby, about one kilometer from my workplace. I wake up at 5 in the morning and I have some roles to undertake before I go to my workplace. And because I am a Farmer, I make sure that my cows and my chicks are on good condition. So, I normally have a good schedule, because in the morning I light my fire, I put my tea on and sometimes also prepare some pancakes for my son and my husband and get my son ready for school. He normally takes off to school at 6.30 that’s the time I take off from home, because I do not come back to the house again. So I normally schedule myself on a good timetable, because it takes about 1 and a half hours to prepare breakfast, to make him dress according to the school uniform, I dress him, because he is so young. He is 4 years old. I make him understand and normally make us leave on a good time, so that we catch up with the bus, the school bus. So as a mother, I normally take caution of being positive to my son, because I take the positive side so that he takes an interest of having the empowerment, so that he will change my life in some years to come. So, after preparing the breakfast, I make sure, I have a person who takes care of the cattle, I make sure the gates are open and the chicks are free too, because they just roam around. They look out for themselves, I don’t put any food out. So, after that, I pack my bag, because I don’t come back again. I pack my bag with my lunch and small drinks for my workplace. After that I drop my son off at the school bus station. Then we just say goodbye to each other and I go off to my workplace. In the evening, I also have the responsibility, because I’m under the same schedule, the same timetable to make sure that the cows are at home. Because I live nearby them and I don’t want to live on a quarrel moody with my neighbors. I love to come and make sure that they are on time and not on the other people’s plots, because they will do destruction. And also, I have to do some cleaning, maybe washing the utensils, making my house to look neat or having the community empowerment or even functions for the community. The less I have I make sure I’m just catch up with the timetable. Despite the small time I have or the little time I have I make sure that I’m on schedule. I’ve been working since 2002, now 17 years. And I’ve been working very proudly because if it was not the kind of health and safety and the safety at work, I think I could not work for those many years. Yes, I have experienced how the whole system has been, because before Fairtrade, I worked and the two years before we where given the certification and the conditions where not that good, because we were working without gumboots, without dustcoats, but after being in the system or being certified by Fairtrade, we followed Fairtrade Standards and us, the workers, we saw the impact that we have. I personally have been working as a Fairtrade-Champion-Leader for about 5 years. That’s my pride as a Lady. In Africa we co-organize the ladies being empowered and being leaders. So, I’m very much proud because the empowered me, given me the courage to stand even in the board and testify how Fairtrade has changed my company, myself, my company and also my community. And the better way I see, the way we are going on or the way we are growing, I see we are pushing our country to change and make ourselves beautiful in our country. It’s better to empower somebody. It will last long that’s what Fairtrade is doing. They showed us empowerment. We have seen the good grades our kids and we started from scratch." COPYRIGHT HOLDER: Fairtrade / Christop Köstlin
Workers are seen on a Fairtrade certified Poinsettia farm run by Red Fox Ethiopia/Dummen Orange in Koka Negewo, Ethiopia. COPYRIGHT HOLDER: Fairtrade / Hilina Abebe