Charities - And Albert Foundation - Trading Roots at The Zoo Cafe

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The Zoo Café on Newland Avenue in Hull is currently selling goods produced by the And Albert Foundation ... The founder of the And Albert Foundation, David Murden has been working for almost 15 years to realise his vision of creating long-term ethical trade with villages in the developing world. Fifteen years retail experience has now culminated in the formation of the And Albert Foundation with its ethical label Trading Roots as a charitable trust. David Bellamy, the renowned environmentalist, has been a close friend and supporter of David Murden for the past 7 years.

He decided to throw his full weight behind the Foundation by becoming its patron in 2001.

Trading Roots projects provide a link to the people of villages in the poorest, and often remote parts of the earth, with a programme of development which doesn't patronise them with a one-sided charitable handout or extinguish their cultural skills with exploitative commercialism. Treating them as individuals, relating and interacting over many years, helps them to market and develop their traditional products.

This allows their skills and environment to be preserved with minimal interference form us, and at their own pace!

Through the depressive effects of poverty, beautiful hand-made authentic products and the skills which make them are in danger of dying out. Trading Roots tries to find a consistent, commercial market for such products this helping the tribes and village communities believe again in their own creative heritage. This long-term ethical trading relationship empowers the people to regain their self-respect and begin to overcome their own problems without direct aid or forcing them into a West is Best philosophy.

By investing in selling the Trading Roots labelled products, you are partnering with us to be one of the very best practical schemes that gets to grips with solving the problems of grassroots poverty, which demeans both the poor and the wealthy. It is also our contention that solving these problems allows the bigger problems to be solved more easily. In Cambodia, during the reign of Pol Pot in the 1970s, a move was made to take the nation's technology back to the year zero. When David Murden arrived in 1993 he found only a few elderly ladies left, skilled in a unique way of pot making that had an uninterrupted history of four thousand years!

This was in danger of dying out, as younger people saw no value in it.

By placing a substantial order then, and much follow up and development with the Care for Cambodia team, Yeo's daughters and granddaughters have learned her skills, becoming potters and designers themselves. A similar story has happened in our project involving the rebirth of traditional Malay pottery, as well as other sustainable artefacts, in the Kelantan rainforest. And Albert has sold Djembe and Talking drums, and other indigenous instruments for over 10 years. By adding quality control and design modifications, many of these have become better suited to the Western user whilst retaining their authenticity and educational value.

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