“We love to listen to our customers and for this reason we would be delighted to hear from you if you would like a bespoke fair trade product made especially for you.”

April 2021 - Newsletter Video Blog Summary

April 2021

This month I continued to heal from all my surgeries, raised awareness for Fairtrade Ethical Ramadan 2021 participated in a Wikipedia training session with Whose Knowledge and World Pulse and

was Sister of Ceremonies for the Encourager Party with World Pulse.

Surgery (March 2020)

My surgery March 2020 - Blog about my endometriosis and PCOS by Sabeena Ahmed

For those that don't know I was admitted to hospital after a few weeks of excruciating pain in my left ovary and required urgent surgery.

My cyst was removed 17th March 2020.

During November 2017 I had my first rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder, and then a year later October 2018 I had the same surgery on my left shoulder.

Its been a long 4 years of excruciating pain, sleepless nights and slow healing.

I still have bouts of low energy, pain and anxiety.

I am learning more about self care, a good healthy diet, exercise and loving myself.

Thank you to all my friends and family who sent get well messages.

Fairtrade Ethical Ramadan 2021 - London, UK

Choose The World You Want - Festival of Climate Change Fairtrade and You - Facebook Banner courtesy of the Fairtrade Foundation

This year I celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 alone shielding in London, UK.

This year the Fairtrade Foundation's campaign is about Climate Change, Fairtrade and You.

Continuing the theme I thought I'd continue campaigning for fairtrade farmers and producers by raising awareness for fair trade and ethical products during Ramadan.

Fairtrade Ramadan Day 1

I started the week supporting fairtrade banana producers, or as my sister calls me 'banana babe.'

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 1 -

Support fairtrade banana producers with Sabeena Ahmed

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 1 - Support fairtrade banana producers with Sabeena Ahmed (Ramadan Kareem) table runner

Day 2

Fairtrade green decaf tea!

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 2 - Support fairtrade tea producers with Sabeena Ahmed (fairtrade green decaf tea)

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 2 - Support fairtrade tea producers with Sabeena Ahmed (fairtrade green decaf tea)

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 2 - Support fairtrade tea producers with Sabeena Ahmed (fairtrade green decaf tea)

Fairtrade Ramadan 2021, Day 2 - Support fairtrade tea producers with Sabeena Ahmed (fairtrade green decaf tea)

Day 3

Had a strong and sweet fairtrade brew at Iftar this evening.

Support Kenyan and Indian tea farmers this Ramadan.

'Buying Co-op Fairtrade tea means you're making a difference.

Fairtrade guarantees farmers a minimum price, and an additional premium paid to workers to invest in business or community projects of their choice.

In India, the workers at Coonoor and Parkside Tea Estates have spent Fairtrade Premium on community welfare initiatives such as establishing a Women's Empowerment Programme, setting up diabetes screening and eye tests, and funding tuition fees and transportation for local school children.

The Fairtrade Premium has also funded environmental projects such as the Plastic Awareness Programme conducted at the Coonoor tea estate.'

Source The Co-op UK

#fairtraderamadan

#fairtradetea

#fairtrade

Day 4

Fairtrade sugar farmers Javier Keme, Fairtrade Ramadan with Sabeena Ahmed

Fairtrade sugar Crème brûlée Raspberry Cheesecake Recipe, Fairtrade Ramadan with Sabeena Ahmed

This Ramadan I'm using fairtrade sugar supporting fairtrade sugar farmers like Javier Keme BSCFA from Belize.

There's also a recipe to make Crème Brûlée Raspberry Cheesecake on the packet.

INGREDIENTS

For the base:

75g Unsalted butter

250g Digestive biscuits crushed into crumbs

For the filling:

1 sachet powdered gelatine

3 tbsp water

375g soft cream cheese

3 egg yolks

75g caster sugar

575ml double cream, whipped until stiff

1 large punnet raspberries

3tsp vanilla essence

For the topping:

50-75g Demerara sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Melt the butter and stir in the biscuit crumbs, press 4 individual loose-based cheesecake tins (or 1 large one).

2. Sprinkle the gelatine over 3 tablespoons of water, leave until spongy and then microwave to melt. Stir until clear

3, Place cream cheese, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk well until smooth and creamy.

4. Stir the whipped cream into the cheese mixture, along with the vanilla essence. Then stir in the gelatine.

5. Sprinkle most of the raspberries over the biscuit base in the tins.

6. Pour the cheese mixture over the top and smooth. Chill for an hour or so.

7. When the filling is set, sprinkle each cheesecake with demerara sugar over the top and brown with a blow torch.

8. Place back in the fridge until ready to eat.

Recipe and Source: Co-op UK

#fairtraderamadan

#fairtradesugar

Day 5

Many thanks to my sister Irem for supporting fairtrade and fairtrade banana farmers this Ramadan.

Proud to support the Cooperativa Bananera de Rio Frio Coobafrio (COOBAFRIO), Colombia banana producers and farmers.

#fairtraderamadan

#fairtradebananas

#fairtradesister

Day 6

'When your dishes are dry and it's time for a brew,

There's a small (but amazing) thing you can do,

Put on the kettle, pull up a chair, pour fairtrade tea.

Let's make the world fair!'

My lovely fairtrade organic certified cotton tea towel, produced by Cotton Roots using the finest fairtrade and organic cotton. FLO ID 23551.

The Little Fair Trade Blog - Celebrating Fairtrade Ethical Ramadan 2021 with Irem and Sabeena Ahmed

Beautifully modelled by my sister Irem.

#fairtraderamadan

#fairtradecertifiedcotton

#cottonroots

Day 7

The Little Fair Trade Blog - Fairtrade Ethical Ramadan 2021 with Sabeena Ahmed

As a self confessed Fairtrade chocoholic, I had to share this box of fairtrade Maltesers which took me down memory lane. So pleased it's still fairtrade.

What's your favourite fairtrade chocolate?

I hope to add more fairtrade chocolate brands this Ramadan.

For those interested a link to a article about Maltesers. Maltesers becomes Mars’ first Fairtrade brand - Laura O'Reilly

https://www.marketingweek.com/maltesers-becomes-mars.../

Visible WikiWomen Edit-A-Thon Wikipedia Training with Whose Knowledge and World Pulse

This month I participated in a Wikipedia training session with Whose Knowledge and World Pulse and

was Sister of Ceremonies for the Encourager Party with World Pulse.

The Wiki session was an eye opener and I struggled to add a photo to Wikipedia due to not having any reading glasses.

I hope the World Pulse team will organise further training sessions for those of us who believe women of colour and ingenuity have been ignored for too long.

Many thanks to the Whose Knowledge team for their time and patience.

About Whose Knowledge

We are a global campaign to center the knowledge of marginalized communities (the majority of the world) on the internet.

3/4 of the online population of the world today comes from the global South – from Asia, from Africa, from Latin America. And nearly half all women are online. Yet most public knowledge online has so far been written by white men from Europe and North America.

To address this, we work particularly with women, people of color, LGBTQI communities, indigenous peoples and others from the global South to build and represent more of all of our own knowledge online.

Whose Knowledge? is a radical re-imagining and re-design of the internet, so that together we build and defend an internet of, for and by all.

World Pulse Sister of Ceremonies April 2021

At the end of April I was asked to host a session to over 30 women about encouraging and uplifting other women during a hour Encourager Party.

Many thanks to Dawn and Manasa for their support.

About World Pulse

World Pulse provide a safe, supportive online space where women’s voices are rising from the ground up to make a difference.

On World Pulse, women and allies are logging on from more than 190 countries and exchanging stories and resources to grow their impact.

These digital connections have enabled our members to launch new social movements, businesses, and initiatives - impacting the lives of 17.4 million people in their communities.

If you've read this far, you deserve lots of fairtrade chocolate.

Thank you for reading and I hope to bring you another monthly blog next month

Love and respect

Sabeena