2nd meeting of Banco de Tempo members

The Banco de Tempo organizes the 2nd meeting of its members !

This meeting aims at making people know better each other, and create or re-create the feeling of be part of a community. Because trust and solidarity are important to stimulate exchanges of services !
This moment of conviviality will take place on Sunday 19th of April, in the Parque da Paz in Almada at 15h, where will be organised a Peddy-Paper before the "lanche" ( tea-time with snack !)

Volunteer's main activities

These are the activities of Mó de Vida, the volunteers participate in.
Among them are :
- awareness actions
- sociocultural activities ( thematic lunches, cine eco movie festival...)
- assistance in the worldshop
- pausas justas (coffe breaks)
- bancas (stands)


• Awareness Actions
The responsible for these actions is Colette, and as a volunteer you will assist her in this kind of activity. The aim of awareness actions is to inform and sensibilise children and teenagers about fair trade and social based economy, mainly pupils and students. These actions are provided in basic schools and universities and special sociocultural events.

Mó de Vida team thinks it is more interesting for the schools to come directly at the worldshop, so that they can concretely witness the work in a fair-trade shop, by looking at the place and products, and talk to the workers : Carlos and Nuno. That is why these actions are mainly implemented directly at Mó de Vida worldshop. Before every activity, you will meet Colette in order to prepare the training program. We have organised different types of trainings which aims are:
• Understanding the role of every member of the fair trade system
• Comparing the different economical and trade systems : the fair one and the conventional one.
• Making the students discover themselves the concept of fair trade.
We have been using different means : Analysis e of products’ labels, projections of movies, reflection in small groups, games, powerpoints, price comparisons between fair products and conventional ones, debates… These educational activities allow the volunteers to express their ideas and above all create their own tools for awareness actions, and finally develop their own project. (read more)

• Sociocultural activities

Thematic lunches













When possible, depending on our activities, they usually happen once a month. The food cooked is related with the themes of the films showed and of the debates.
Ex: The “hortas urbanas” meeting, April 2008. Mó de Vida implemented a workshop about the creation of a organic urban garden. During this day, we visited our own urban garden and another one. Then, lunch was organised at Mó de Vida, where everyone brought something to share. In the afternoon, we watched a movie about food wastes.


“Cine eco” movie festival
It is organised during the fair trade weeks. Projection of movies about food sovereignty, environmental issues, globalisation and so on.
Participating in these activities helps the volunteers understand that fair trade is just part of more global issues, such as consumption habits, North/South relations, environmental issues, education for development or social based economy.

• Assistance in the worldshop













You will work everyday in the world shop, so it is a very important part of your activity. Most of your time will be spent at Mó de vida. It consists in :
• Decorating of the worldshop, introducing regurlaly alterations and updating the supports available, organising the products presentation.
• Assisting and communicate with fair-trade consumers.
• Helping Nuno and Carlos with the products supplies ( receiving the products, checking them, labelling them with Portuguese translations and prices and so on, preparing the products ordered by other cooperatives)
• Cleaning of the shop



• Pausa justa ( coffee breaks )
You will be Nuno’s assistant in this activity. It a special coffee break with fair trade products and/or from local producers, provided to public institutions and local organisations during their meetings, conferences, seminars, in order to promote solidarity and responsible consumption.

Before the activity, you will prepare the material, and then set up the coffee break, help the participants, give them information about fair trade and responsible consumption based on solidarity: This activity is actually in a growing phase at Mó.


• Bancas (stands)













This activity takes place in fairs or markets: The aim is to set up an exhibition and sale stand with fair trade products. During this activity, you will not only sell products but also give information about Fair Trade and what it is related to (consumption, environmental issues, globalisation, conventional trade…).

Activities created by the volunteers

Volunteers could develop their own activities during their EVS, among them are the Banco de tempo exchange system, and various tools for awareness actions.
Volunteers can also take part in extra training sessions provided by Mó de Vida.

• 2009/2010:  Ivette has  participated in the following extra training sessions provided by Mó de Vida during her  EVS:

Formation on Educational Animators of Fair Trade ; Autumn School of “Espaço por um Comércio Justo” Network ; Jornadas de Turismo Ético e Solidário; Workshop with Cape Verde traditional lunch “Cachupa” at Mó de Vida in cooperation with Escola Superior de Educação Paula Frassinetti/Porto and International Amnisty / Portuguese Session ; Workshop of “didgeridoo” managed by the musician Rodrigo Viterbo; Initial formation destinated for teachers concerning in the frame of the project “Frair Trade:Contribution for building the Global Citizenship” ; 
Workshop destinated to 60 schools of Península de Setúbal and Lisbon regions.







Power Point for dissemination of EVS made by Ivette Grané: 

  see the file

• 2009: Puppets theater/Teatro de marionetas (implemented by Ivette and Marion)

Mó de Vida has been invited to the Andanças festival during the summer 2009. Andanças is a dance festival with all kind of european dances, and other activities like the ones Mó prepared. Ivette and Marion prepared an awareness action for children for the festival. They created a theater play with puppets about fair trade issues. About 20 children assisted the play and then could see the puppets, play with them and ask some questions. It was a nice moment to share with the kids, we all enjoyed so much the moment that there is no pictures or movies of the play :)

• 2009: Welcome plan for volunteers/Plano de acolhimento (being implemented by Ivette)

Ivette is actually on a project for future volunteers for Mó de Vida...To be continued...

• 2009: Books exhanges/Troca de livros (implemented by Marion)

The books exchanges is a small project which consists in disponibilize a space for people who want to share books they like. the idea is to let a book you loved, and explain in a short message in the book why you liked it so much. When you let a book then you can take another one.

• 2007-09: Banco de Tempo ( implemented by Delphine and Maxi, developed in 2009 by Marion )
  

It is the Portuguese equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon’s LETS (Local Exchange Trade Service).

It consists in a net of people working together with the aim of exchanging knowledge and services.
The “unit of exchange” is one hour. After the service provided, the one who received it, pays it with an hour(s) cheque to the service provider.

Mó de Vida’s Banco de Tempo was inaugurated in October 2008. The idea of the Project creation was to find an alternative to money and to create a Project in the area of solidarity based economy.
The project was created with the help of Graal , The organisation which promotes Banco de Tempo’s system in Portugal.
Nowadays in Mó de Vida, we are counting with the help of a 4 people team for the system’s organisation. The Banco de tempo participated in Mó's events such as the "Outra Margem" in 2009 with didgeridoo, juggling and writing activities. It has its own meetings, events, newsletter...

Delphine, who implemented the Banco de tempo at Mó

• 2007-08: 3 tools for awareness actions ( developed by Delphine and Maxi )

aimed at children and teenagers in some fairs or special cultural events

Ø A volta ao mundo dos alimentares _ Around the world food trip


It consists on a shadow puppetry play, where the main character is travelling around the world meeting different little producers from the south of the Globe.
This is a really basic story which purposes are presenting the Fair Trade principles in comparison to Conventional Trade.
We are used to proposing these activities for children from about 3 to 10. It’s flexible, because as we organise it in fairs we do not control the public we receive.

After the play, we usually organise a game related to the story with the children. The one we created was with a world map, in which the goal for the children was to discover where the food they consume every morning for breakfast is produced. Our goal when the game ends is to make them understand how dependant we are from the little producers of the world, and also how important it is for them to live in dignity.


Ø O percurso de uma calça de ganga _ A pair of jeans trip



This is also a shadow puppetry play. But the story is more complex so it is aimed to an older public. Delphine and Maxi have done it once with teenagers.

In this story the main character is progressively discovering that for making a traditional pair of jeans, he has to cross China, Philippines, Turkey, India, Morocco, France, Germany, Switzerland…
The story deals with many themes (environment, labour rights, living conditions in the South of the Planet, Multinational Factories profits…). Dealing with so many different themes, we want teenagers to question themselves about consumption, their consumption.

To go through this story, we have organised a moving debate in which the teenagers have to take positions on 3 subjects related to the story, then to explain their ideas, persuade others and possibly change their mind.


Ø Jogo de 7 famílias do Comércio _ / 7 families trade game


This game is built like a 7 families game, but the families are products (chocolate, coffee, cornflakes…), and the aim is to find all the members of the family and rebuild the chain from the producer to the consumer.
There are 2 games, we first play with the Conventional Trade game, and then with the Fair Trade one.

It’s a game Delphine and Maxi have played once till now, in a fair with children from 6 to 10.
The objective is to inform them about the distribution chain, its actors and realise the unequal/ equal share of money among them.