We invite you to do some holiday shopping at Point Loma Nazarene University during their annual Alternative Gifts Market this Friday, Dec. 4, 2015.
6-10pm
3900 Lomaland Drive • San Diego, CA 92106
Monday, November 30, 2015
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
A FAITH that does JUSTICE extended an invite to people in the area of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Diego
to learn about Fair Trade.
All are welcome!
In addition to the speakers, samples of fair trade coffee from
Cafe Virtuoso will be served along with Ben & Jerry's fair trade ice-cream.
FAIR TRADE: COMMERCE AND CONSCIENCE
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
6:30-8:30pm
Sunday, November 22, 2015
La Mesa Fair Trade and Fair Trade San Diego County salutes
Dr. Bronner's Fair Trade Magic Soaps!
La Mesa Fair Trade and friends of Fair Trade
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| Lip Balms are filled by hand! |
Friday, November 6, 2015
Fair Trade Shopping for the Holidays!
There are several opportunities to shop for fair trade gifts in San Diego and online with our local vendors. St. Paul's Cathedral will have a booth from Ten Thousand Villages. This booth alone is worth your time! Following this event, Point Loma Nazarene University celebrates each year with a "Roots for Giving" fair trade event. Lots of vendors and lots of food on December 4th.
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Roots of Giving
Point Loma Nazarene University
Event features fair trade vendors and food stations.
Friday, December 4th from 6pm-10pm
3900 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
San Diego, CA 92106
Fair Trade Retailers in San Diego County
All Across Africa - San Diego
Every Thursday afternoon 3~7pm at UTC Farmers Market
Every Friday morning 9~ 1pm@ Rancho Bernardo Winery Farmers Market
Every Saturday 9~ 1:30pm at Scripps Ranch Farmers Market
Every Sunday 9~2 at Hillcrest Farmers Market
Also All Across Africa will be a guest vendor at the Mission Valley Costco from Dec. 18~27th
Shop online with local ties to San Diego!
Seven Hopes United - online fair trade store
Friday, October 30, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
FAIR TRADE GIFT FAIR IN LA MESA
WAS A SUCCESS!
WAS A SUCCESS!
Vendors included: All Across Africa, Around the World Gifts, Ben & Jerry's, Cafe Virtuoso, Dr, Bronners, Fair Trade Decor, Guatemala Project, Partners Fair Trade Boutique, the *5th and 8th grades classes at St. Martin Academy, Threads Worldwide, Tomorrow Project & Vavavida.
A very special thank you also goes to Ben & Jerry's Seaport Village who donated scoops of fair trade ice-cream and to Rigo at Cafe Virtuoso who served over 9 gallons of fair trade coffee. Both gave their tips to the 8th grade class and to Fair Trade San Diego. We also thank Dr. Bonners who gave us a basket of their fair trade soaps to raffle. We salute them!
*The 5th grade class tabled items from Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade and Equal Exchange Catalogs.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Your gifts count twice when you shop fair trade.
Vendors include:
Around the World Gifts, Ben & Jerrys, Cafe Virtusos, Dr. Bronners, Fair Trade Decor, Malia Designs, Partners Fair Trade Boutique, Threads World Wide, Vavavida.
Other tables: Guatemala Project, The Tomorrow Project, Build a Miracle, CRS Fair Trade and Fair Trade San Diego County
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General Meeting
Fair Trade San Diego County
Fair Trade supporters came together to move forward with promoting Fair Trade in
San Diego and beyond on September 16, 2015.
Diocesan Pastoral Center
Represented was Rosalie, USD - Students for Fair Trade, Andrew-represented PLNU, Kent-Social Justice/Fair Trade, Sue- Peace Advocate and Partners Fair Trade Boutique, Jude - Fair Trade Decor, Ephrain - Ben & Jerry's, Seaport Village, Dennis- Fair Trade San Diego Co., Antoine - Vavavida, Evangley- Around the World Gifts, Anne, Midge, Christina, and Carolyn- Fair Trade San Diego Co., Rigo-Cafe Virtuoso
Represented was Rosalie, USD - Students for Fair Trade, Andrew-represented PLNU, Kent-Social Justice/Fair Trade, Sue- Peace Advocate and Partners Fair Trade Boutique, Jude - Fair Trade Decor, Ephrain - Ben & Jerry's, Seaport Village, Dennis- Fair Trade San Diego Co., Antoine - Vavavida, Evangley- Around the World Gifts, Anne, Midge, Christina, and Carolyn- Fair Trade San Diego Co., Rigo-Cafe Virtuoso
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Antoine Didienne featured in UT - San Diego Fair Trade On-line store - Vavavida
Antoine Didienne and his company have been a part of San Diego and La Mesa Fair Trade for many years. His company, Vavavida has tabled each year at the annual La Mesa Fair Trade Gift Faire.
On July 28,2015 Union Tribune reporter Carla Peterson, featured Antoine in her "Making a Difference" column.
He has been a tech-company worker, an account executive in a communications firm and a web entrepreneur. But the job that sent Antoine Didienne’s work-life path in a whole new direction has a one-word title and contract that will not be running out anytime soon.
“It sounds corny, but since I became the dad of a daughter, I wanted to make the world a better place for her and for all women,” said the 38-year-old Didienne, the father of Nyla (who is almost 6) and the expectant father of a daughter due in November. “I thought that I really wanted to be an example for my daughter. I wanted to be someone she could look up to.”
The world-improvement plan started three years ago with the launch of the online shopping site Vavavida. The site – which Didienne co-founded with his University of San Diego classmate Daniel Amaro and Daniel’s mother, Linda – specializes in jewelry and accessories made by fair-trade companies, most of which employ and support women.
Next, Didienne and the Amaros began donating a portion of the company’s proceeds to Project Concern International, a San Diego-based nonprofit that has been working with the world’s most vulnerable communities since 1961. Then Didienne and his company took their relationship with Project Concern to the next humanitarian level.
Last year, they partnered with San Diego jewelry designer Jennifer Housman to launch a weekly jewelry-making class for local members of Project Concern’s Women Empowerment Initiative which gives women the tools and resources they need to support themselves and their families.
Project Concern provides the meeting space, Housman provides the instruction, and Vavavida and Housman pay the expenses. The plan is to create a line of jewelry and accessories that the women can make at home. They will be paid by the piece, and Vavavida will sell the goods online. Didienne and his partners are working on a Kickstarter campaign, and if all goes according to plan, the line will launch in the fall.
In the meantime, Didienne attends the classes, too. He is fluent in Spanish, so he helps translate for the students, most of them immigrants from Mexico. He also provides marketing input and interviews the women about their lives, so their stories can be featured on the website along with their handiwork.
The jewelry project is a work in progress, but the program has already produced some rare treasures.
“Antoine has been consistently coming to meet with the women, and for them consistency is so important, because consistency has been missing from their lives,” said Jessica Rossier Uribe, who manages Project Concern International’s United States and Border empowerment programs. “These women have had a lot of trauma and abuse in their lives, but they feel comfortable enough with Antoine to tell him their stories. They have developed a strong relationship with him, which is amazing.”
Born and raised in Lyon, France, Didienne got his ambition from his hard-charging father, an executive in the plastics industry. His respect for women started with his mother, who faced workplace discrimination in her administration job, also in the plastics industry. His empathy has its roots in the year he spent as an exchange student at Williamsville East High School in East Amherst, N.Y.
“I loved the feeling of being a pioneer. Being there took me away from the part of me that was French, French, French and made me want to be a citizen of the world,” Didienne said during an interview at the Claire de Lune Coffee Lounge in North Park. “And it gave me an openness to other people and cultures that I would not have discovered otherwise.”
He returned to the United States in 1999 to attend the University of San Diego. Didienne graduated with a degree in business administration in 2001, worked for Yahoo for a year, then moved to Madrid. He worked for a communications agency and got married. He and his wife, Glenda, returned to San Diego in 2008 and he began studying for his master’s degree at San Diego State. It was during a class in global ethics that another piece of Didienne’s puzzle fell into place.
“That class really shook things up for me. It was in the aftermath of the BP oil spill (of 2010) and the banking meltdown, and I thought, ‘I just can’t. I can’t work for people like this.’ And then I thought, ‘I can’t talk about this anymore. I have to do something about it.’”
In addition to supporting small fair-trade companies, Vavavida donates products to charity auctions and sponsors the Row for a Cure fundraiser benefiting Susan G. Komen San Diego and its many breast-can hem as women who can make something of themselves, as opposed to women who need something.”
On July 28,2015 Union Tribune reporter Carla Peterson, featured Antoine in her "Making a Difference" column.
 |
| Antoine Didienne, center, who helped start a jewelry-making class for refugee women as part of Project Concern International's Women Empowered Initiative, sat for a portrait with Lisa Bain, PCI program manager, left, and jewelry designer and volunteer teacher Jennifer Housman, right. — John Gastaldo |
He has been a tech-company worker, an account executive in a communications firm and a web entrepreneur. But the job that sent Antoine Didienne’s work-life path in a whole new direction has a one-word title and contract that will not be running out anytime soon.
“It sounds corny, but since I became the dad of a daughter, I wanted to make the world a better place for her and for all women,” said the 38-year-old Didienne, the father of Nyla (who is almost 6) and the expectant father of a daughter due in November. “I thought that I really wanted to be an example for my daughter. I wanted to be someone she could look up to.”
The world-improvement plan started three years ago with the launch of the online shopping site Vavavida. The site – which Didienne co-founded with his University of San Diego classmate Daniel Amaro and Daniel’s mother, Linda – specializes in jewelry and accessories made by fair-trade companies, most of which employ and support women.
Next, Didienne and the Amaros began donating a portion of the company’s proceeds to Project Concern International, a San Diego-based nonprofit that has been working with the world’s most vulnerable communities since 1961. Then Didienne and his company took their relationship with Project Concern to the next humanitarian level.
Last year, they partnered with San Diego jewelry designer Jennifer Housman to launch a weekly jewelry-making class for local members of Project Concern’s Women Empowerment Initiative which gives women the tools and resources they need to support themselves and their families.
Project Concern provides the meeting space, Housman provides the instruction, and Vavavida and Housman pay the expenses. The plan is to create a line of jewelry and accessories that the women can make at home. They will be paid by the piece, and Vavavida will sell the goods online. Didienne and his partners are working on a Kickstarter campaign, and if all goes according to plan, the line will launch in the fall.
In the meantime, Didienne attends the classes, too. He is fluent in Spanish, so he helps translate for the students, most of them immigrants from Mexico. He also provides marketing input and interviews the women about their lives, so their stories can be featured on the website along with their handiwork.
The jewelry project is a work in progress, but the program has already produced some rare treasures.
“Antoine has been consistently coming to meet with the women, and for them consistency is so important, because consistency has been missing from their lives,” said Jessica Rossier Uribe, who manages Project Concern International’s United States and Border empowerment programs. “These women have had a lot of trauma and abuse in their lives, but they feel comfortable enough with Antoine to tell him their stories. They have developed a strong relationship with him, which is amazing.”
Born and raised in Lyon, France, Didienne got his ambition from his hard-charging father, an executive in the plastics industry. His respect for women started with his mother, who faced workplace discrimination in her administration job, also in the plastics industry. His empathy has its roots in the year he spent as an exchange student at Williamsville East High School in East Amherst, N.Y.
“I loved the feeling of being a pioneer. Being there took me away from the part of me that was French, French, French and made me want to be a citizen of the world,” Didienne said during an interview at the Claire de Lune Coffee Lounge in North Park. “And it gave me an openness to other people and cultures that I would not have discovered otherwise.”
He returned to the United States in 1999 to attend the University of San Diego. Didienne graduated with a degree in business administration in 2001, worked for Yahoo for a year, then moved to Madrid. He worked for a communications agency and got married. He and his wife, Glenda, returned to San Diego in 2008 and he began studying for his master’s degree at San Diego State. It was during a class in global ethics that another piece of Didienne’s puzzle fell into place.
“That class really shook things up for me. It was in the aftermath of the BP oil spill (of 2010) and the banking meltdown, and I thought, ‘I just can’t. I can’t work for people like this.’ And then I thought, ‘I can’t talk about this anymore. I have to do something about it.’”
In addition to supporting small fair-trade companies, Vavavida donates products to charity auctions and sponsors the Row for a Cure fundraiser benefiting Susan G. Komen San Diego and its many breast-can hem as women who can make something of themselves, as opposed to women who need something.”
Monday, June 8, 2015
Tabling at The Vitamin Shoppe!
Many people stopped by to check out fair trade products that are carried at the Vitamin Shoppe. Two years ago, only two fair trade products were on the shelves. We salute the Vitamin Shoppe for offering more fair trade products to their customers.
Products include:
Zhenas Gypsy Tea Organic Coconut Chai
Green Tea,
Tera's Whey Grass-Fed Proteins,Navitas Foods,
Cocoa Nibs and Cocao Powder,
Rishi Teas, Runa Teas and Dr. Bronner Products.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Cacaofest - Balboa Park
World Fair Trade Day
May 2015
This was a unique opportunity for Fair Trade San Diego to be a part of this event
in Balboa Park for World Fair Trade. Many people signed up
to be a part of the Fair Trade movement in San Diego. People are
becoming more aware of where their food and products are sourced.
People count and especially the women who grow, sew and harvest the products we
enjoy every day.
Divine Chocolate donated samples of dark chocolate to the event.
Divine is the only Fair Trade chocolate company which is owned by its cocoa farmers. 
 | ||
| Healing Climate Change - Ryan Zinn |
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Celebrating World Fair Trade Day -
May 9th
Join San Diego Fair Trade County at
The CacaoFest
World Music Festival
Balboa Park's Cultural Plaza
10am-10:30pm
Embark on a day long journey around the world ... exploring the Cacao Jungles of Meso-America, Indonesia, Africa, and South America. Please all the senses as we dive into the alluring flavors, music, art, history, and ritual tradition of the people around the that cultivate cacao, the plant behind the chocolate sweetness.
Join us in celebration, honoring generations of growers, chocolatiers, connoisseurs, and chocaholics alike who savor this “food of the gods”.
Fair Trade Market
Fair Trade merchandise as well as products by craftsmen and women who use fair trade, up cycled or local materials. Hands-on workshops and demonstrations including chocolate making.
CacaoTalks
Learn the ins and outs of this delicious and nutritious plant from chefs, scientists, educators, humanitarians and more!
Food Forest
Come hungry and choose from a delicious variety of LOCAL organic food vendors!
Kids Ca-Corner
Hands on workshops, games, activities and entertainment
Workshops
Fair Trade San Diego (1pm) committee members will be talking about Fair Trade Towns, Schools & Universities and Congregations. Learn how to start this in your community.
Also there will be hands-on workshops and demonstrations including chocolate making and artistic & cultural explorations.
Enjoy a Fair Trade Wine and Beer Garden
• Art Exhibit • Live Art Show • and more!
• Art Exhibit • Live Art Show • and more!
Click here for CocaoFest tickets. http://www.cacaofest.com/
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
General Meeting
Fair Trade San Diego County
invites you to attend
a general meeting
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
5PM
La Mesa Biz Center
___________________________________________________
Planing for World Fair Trade Day on May 9th -
Partnering with CacaoFest.com
Your input matters and your support is appreciated. Please come!
7317 El Cajon Blvd, La Mesa, CA 91942
Cross Streets: Near the intersection of El Cajon Blvd and 73rd St
Neighborhoods: College East
Monday, March 30, 2015
The Fair Trade Federation Convention
Last week Fair Trade San Diego joined
the Expo at the Del Mar Hilton.
Fair Trade vendors from around the country displayed their goods last week in Del Mar.
Check out a few of the vendors below and visit their websites.
See how you can make a difference with your purchases!
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| Traditional Zapotec weaver of fine rugs. |
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| Equal Exchange shared their mini's at the welcome table! |
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| www.mrelliepooh.com |
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| rupalee.com |
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| escamastudio.com |
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| www.toockies.com |
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| Palestinian Fair Trade - caaanusa.com |
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| "It's Hip to be Fair" - matratraders.com |
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Great connections and wonderful friends! Courtney- USA Fair Trade • Simone-Catholic Relief Services • Serina - Serrv
• Anne- Fair Trade San Diego and La Mesa Fair Trade
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| Lucuma Designs found at the SD Zoo. |
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| All Connected! Fair Trader leaders who are spreading the word about Fair Trade in the US. |
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