May - September 2009 Vol. 1 Issue 6 Just Change ...directly linking communities Just Change Update Our views, news and more !!
 
Editors Note: Social Entrepreneurs
The idea of Just Change has been spreading to different people and places over the last few months. In India, Outlook Business told the JC story of social entrepreneurship. In the UK, community to community trading is gaining momentum. JC is being talked about in Germany and the USA. Why all the growing excitement? This issue of the newsletter shares some stories about the social benefit and gains the JC idea can bring about. We hope many more people will be bitten by the Just Change bug! From the prism of Social Benefit Over the years, we have had many visitors to Just Change operations in Kerala. When our women members are asked about the benefits of being a part of JC, the first ones listed are always the ones that do not have a monetary value to them. For example, the benefits of having a local woman shopkeeper, the small wage income for women who would otherwise be housewives, and the togetherness that comes because of this activity. In the nuts and bolts of the business where profit is seen as the primary benchmark, it is easy to lose sight of the benefits as perceived by local people. In nearly every group where JC works, the first benefit listed by women is a renewed sense of community. Ownership over the local shop and an interest in ensuring its success are being felt increasingly in all village shops. And there is a great sense of pride in the fact that three years down the road, small profits are being generated and the shops continue to survive and grow. Golden ringsFive Golden Rings...Well, in this case it's actually two! When the women of Vellilamad VCS on the banks of the Chaliyar river decided to start a JC shop, many people in the village thought they were out of their minds. But the women persisted and set up shop. A local betting syndicate decided this was an easy way to make a quick buck. “The Just Change shop will close down in six months” they decided, and bet a gold ring on it. Six months later, the JC shop was still going strong, its membership growing. Unable to believe they had been beaten by the women of Vellilamad, they placed another bet, hoping the business would collapse in the next six months and they'd win back the lost ring. Twenty four months later, the JC shop is still going strong, and having lost both rings, the betting syndicate is no longer putting its money on the demise of the Vellilamad VCS! JC womenWith Just Change, women are able to manage their household expenditure better - as they buy exactly what they need, no excess. Locally made goods like coconut products, bananas, home-made snacks and so on are sold in their shop. Some members feel a great advantage in receiving detailed bills from JC, as it helps them be knowledgeable about the price of goods. “Not only do we understand a bit more about markets and prices” says Parukutty, who runs the JC shop in Ambittampoty village, “We have been able to interact with other groups doing similar things and learn from them”. Other benefits especially in more remote areas is the local employment generated not just for women members, but also for men loading and unloading sacks of food, transporting goods in their local autorickshaws and so on. These jobs are now accessible locally, and people do not need to travel to the town in order to get work. Many of these benefits cannot be easily quantified and are often lost when we focus exclusively on the single bottom line. Creating a method to easily track social benefit or even a social rate of return will be an important project at Just Change. We look forward to a year of social change! Giving a better price - without the premium One of the ideas driving Just Change is that both producers and consumers should get a fair price. When we started, we were told that this was impossible to achieve as sellers and buyers have fundamentally opposing interests with regard to price. Sellers want the highest price, buyers want the lowest. Two years ago, JC took a calculated risk to give a small premium to another producer company, Aharam, to source three products - Chillies, Coriander and Tamarind. In monetary terms, the premium was between Rs.2-5 per kg for each of the products and in percentage terms it was between 10-15% of the value of the products. The gamble was that after the harvest, the price of these products would go up, so it would be possible to recover that initial premium at festival times when the prices of spices shoot up. And how they did! In the first year (2007), the prices of chillies jumped dramatically in the open market, while JC was able to hold its price, giving consumer members the benefit of a lower price. The following year (2008), it was coriander. The price jumped over 300% over a period between our time of sourcing and selling it in September - November 2008. Again, JC was able to hold the price of coriander as we had sourced the product in advance. The price of tamarind also jumped, though much less dramatically. price volatility We found that it IS possible for producers and consumers to collaborate to their mutual benefit, in this case, producers benefiting from assured purchase and upfront premium while consumers can get lower prices. There is a sufficient seasonal variation to follow a buy and hold approach. Buying at harvest time, and then selling at festival times allows a margin that can give a better price to both producers and consumers. For some products like chillies and coriander in the past years, there can be an exceptional return on investment, which in JC's case, was mainly distributed to consumers by giving a lower price. Our next focus is to identify producers who can provide the entire basket of household products. As for this year, its the price of sugar that is now shooting up, leaving a not so sweet taste in consumers mouths. Wake up and smell the coffee! On May 7th, 2009 a bold, new fair trade initiative was launched at the House of Commons in London. Oromo coffee Billed as the first ever community to community direct trading coffee initiative, Oromo Coffee Company links coffee farmers in the Oromo district of Ethiopia with refugees from that region who are now living in the north of England. The aim is to create new outlets for Ethiopian coffee farmers and new jobs for their fellow countrymen in the UK, through a mutually beneficial trading relationship. Sounds familiar? It should do. The project was partly inspired by the example of Just Change UK. The Lorna Young Foundation, which has been helping to set up Oromo, visited Marsh Farm over a year ago. They had discussions with Stan and other Just Changers, and made links with JCUK volunteers in Manchester not far from where the Oromo refugee community is based. At the heart of their vision is a trading model that, like Just Change, aims to benefit communities in the UK who are struggling to become economically independent, as well as farmers in Africa who are fighting for economic justice. The OCC social enterprise is wholly owned and run by members of the North West Oromo Community in the UK. They import exceptionally high quality coffee from Ethiopia. It is roasted and packaged by Bolling Coffee, a small family firm very like our own Northern Tea Merchants! And with the help of Tameside Council and others, they are now developing a market for their product. JCUK was represented at the launch and sent messages of support. We are thrilled to be able to work alongside the OCC - another community-owned, trading initiative that is directly connecting communities across the world, building solidarity between people and challenging the way global trade is organised. There is certainly plenty of scope for us to work together and collaborate in the attempt! Between their coffee and our tea, we hope to move mountains! And Other News... * August saw the annual visit of the DFTI students. As part of their course “Development from the Inside”, seven students from the UK & US visited the Kerala Branches of JC. The group did three short research projects on price data analysis, space utilisation in retail outlets and a products page for our website to use in future. We enjoyed having the group over – a big thank you to them! * Just Change India finally has a new website! In keeping with the JC philosophy, the JC India team developed the new site with Free(dom) Software. Do click here to check it out – we would love your comments and feedback * News on the grapevine is that JC UK is planning a tea party on Sunday 13th September! Stan will represent us there. Get in touch with Tricia or Lucy for more details ( london@justchangeuk.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )