Anneluise Kämmerer of Weltladen Eisenstadt, Austria visited Preda Mango Farmers
Pro fair trade is an important part of PREDA.
The Homes for Children are largely financed through the sale of mangoes.
Here on the island of Luzon live the AETAS, a primitive people who have my greatest respect. They are our MANGO farmers.
They are regularly trained in organic farming by PREDA technicians.
Local inspectors support them because they are in close contact with the farmers.
They also got the organic certificate again!
This is important for us world shops because traceability is an important point in fair trade.
I was able to attend seminars on the production of organic fertilizer.
The farmers followed the lectures with great attention and interest and then got busy with the production:
A banana trunk or the leaves of Kamote are crushed, then molasses is added and after 7 days the spray is ready for use.
The fertilizer is also made from fish and mussels, but it takes 2 months to be used.
A big project of PREDA is to provide the villages with running water so that people don’t always have to go to the river for water.
Trenches are dug for the laying of water supply pipes.
They are paid for this work by PREDA.
Everyone helps and almost the whole village follows the work excitedly. The water pipe goes to the nearest free flowing stream, from where it is connected into a large water tank.
When the first flow of water came out of the tank, there was great joy!
Wells and toilets have also been built in recent years, so that the quality of life for our mango farmers has improved a lot, which is a very important part of fair trade.
