The Story of KWEN Not very long ago, sometime towards the end of 2006, a 3-woman team from KWEN, that is, Korean Women Empowerment Network, based at Seoul, South Korea, made a visit to IFFAD, spent a day at our office, evaluating the range of items displayed and made some notes. We even answered a lot of eager and enthusiastic queries from the delegation, who, perhaps, were impressed by the openness and warmth of our transaction as well as our transparency in arranging of a direct interaction between them and some of our producers/artisans. They did make some token purchases meant as samples for their reference with a view of reverting to us at a later date.
Soon on the heels of their visit to IFFAD, they extended an invitation to IFFAD to come to Seoul to make a presentation on ‘the history of Fair Trade in India and the role of IFFAD in improving the lot of the artisan’. We, that is, a Programme Co-ordinator alongwith a Kalamkari artisan from Andhra Pradesh, landed up at Seoul, and were taken round to three places in Seoul and Dongdaewoo, to make a presentation as well as demonstrate the traditional art of Kalamkari before some very enthusiastic crowds who ended up not only listening and responding to our presentations, but also ‘took home’ as souvenirs stampings of Kalamkari on every piece of cloth they could lay their hands on! We had a round of discussions with the marketing panel of KWEN before we emplaned on our return trip, and subsequently, have forwarded some samples for their consideration. KWEN is a powerful women’s group devoted to the protection of ecology in South Korea as well as empower their women through the medium of Fair Trade. We at IFFAD are happy and proud that we have established a mutually rapport for further good things to happen!. |
