“The trip was so informative, I’ll definitely be there again next year,” enthuses one of the participants. For four days, around 30 active people from various world shops in Baden-Württemberg went on an information tour in Bavaria and Austria together with the SEZ World Shop Forum. The aim of the educational trip at the end of July was to find out more about fair trade in other regions and countries.
“Grias di” was the motto at the Fair Handelshaus Bayern in Haimhausen near Munich, the first stop on the trip. The cooperative sells fair trade goods and products from socially and ecologically responsible production. It promotes the networking of world shops and carries out social and development policy educational work.
The next stop was Zum Fairkauf Handelskontor eG in Munich. The wholesale company sells, among other things, handmade paper from India and mountain herbs from Austria.
On the way to Vienna, the group stopped in Köstendorf, Austria. EZA Fairer Handel is based there. The company is a pioneer of fair trade in Austria. The focus of the specialist program in Vienna was the tour of various world stores and the visit to the two sustainable fashion stores Anukoo and Anviel, which were complemented by sightseeing highlights.
For more than 25 years, the Weltladen Forum of the Baden-Württemberg Development Cooperation Foundation (SEZ) has offered interested Weltladen employees the opportunity to gain an insight into fair trade in various regions of Germany or neighboring European countries as part of a trip lasting several days . The forum serves for professional and personal exchange with like-minded people, to collect original ideas and to provide motivation for further world shop work. Destinations of the past Weltladen forums included Hamburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Gouda, Innsbruck, Zurich and Utrecht.
Next year the World Shop Forum will be back in the Netherlands. There will be more information about this in January 2019.