Fiema Tours

To combine Fair Trade Tours and Fair Trade import and marketing to raise the profile and status of craftspeople and artists in Ghana, and educate visitors on the cultural and artistic heritage of the country.

Economic Responsibility:

• Tours are led by a local guide, using a local vehicle and driver. Organisation of transport and accommodation is through a local tour operator employing local people.
• The crafts involved are small scale village enterprises using local materials, the workshops are run by these local craftspeople.
• Guests are encouraged to buy craft products directly from the producers ie beads, batik, drums, carving, brass ornaments.
• Visits include trips to local markets to buy other goods. We will look to use hotels providing traditional Ghanaian cooking with indigenous foodstuffs where possible, and lunches, snacks etc provided on the tour will be prepared from local produce.
• Issues of imports/exports, goods available locally and good things to buy and take back will be highlighted in pre-trip guidance.

Environmental Responsibility:

• The crafts involved are small scale village enterprises using local materials, recycled glass in the case of bead-making, recycled brass for the brass casters, renewable wood sources for the carvers.
• These aspects will be highlighted for the guests, and each tour will involve cross-visits to the other craft villages.
• Each visit will include a tour of the craft village, pit latrines, rudimentary school house and all, where issues of water use and deforestation, income levels, life expectancy, schooling costs, changes to the social fabric etc will be presented to the guests.
• We currently have no UK initiative to reduce waste but will implement a paper recycling policy and used recycled materials in publicity literature and display materials.

Social Responsibility:

• The tours commence with historical and social orientation through talks, museum and cultural centre visits to ensure appreciation of the crafts in their cultural setting.
• Guests received detailed background information prior to the Tour on Ghana's history and society, and briefing on arrival on how to behave and interact eg with regard to greetings, photography, bartering, dress code, etc.
• Most of all, the tours take guests to pay directly to study the skills and techniques of local craftspeople, which in some cases will be a first for the communities involved.
• More generally, the tours encourage visitors to appreciate the skills of the indigenous artists and craftspeople, to interact with them as guests learning from the artists, and to contribute to the community. They will do this not just by paying for the workshops, but also by sharing skills where appropriate and by promoting their crafts in their home country - many of the visitors are likely to be UK based artists or craftspeople who can help promote and sell their work.