Welcome to the bulletin of the Canadian Social Economy Hub (CSEHub) for the National Research Program on the Social Economy (funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council). Over the next five years, the CSEHub will be sending out bulletins on a regular basis to provide updates on the work of the CSEHub and its Nodes. An Update on CSERP

Entrepreneurs with ethical fibre
Sidney Ribaux has been an activist since his CEGEP days when he started up an aluminum recycling program. He now heads up Equiterre, a Quebec-based environmental and fair trade group. Michel Venne also got his feet wet in social causes during his student days, then had a long career as a journalist at Le Devoir.

Letter to the fair trade movement
I’ve been thinking about writing this letter for a while. And, recently, I’ve been thinking about walking away from the fair trade movement. The thought still crosses my mind from time-to-time. I first came across the idea of fair trade when Just Us! Coffee Roasters Coop opened a cafe and roastery in a small converted house in New Minas, Nova Scotia in 1995.

Please click here to download the program for the ANSER-ARES Conference.

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Metro Filipinos ship rice to families back home
Gift packages from Canadian residents ease shortages in homeland

Filipino expatriates and, in particular, workers who go abroad seeking employment, are famed for remitting significant cash earnings to support their families back home.

The April 2008 ECO-SOC INFO bulletin of The Canada Research Chair on Social Economy is now available on its website!

To read it, click here!

'Little hardware store that could' closer to reopening
After a year without their neighbourhood landmark, a group of former customers are on the verge of reopening an 85-year-old hardware store in Winnipeg's North End. Since Pollock Hardware closed last year, residents and customers have been trying to raise enough money to buy the store and operate it as a co-op.

A Healthy Alternative
It seems everyone has a gripe about our medical system these days. Wait lists are too long, alternative treatments aren’t given legitimate recognition, too much effort is placed on cures and not enough on prevention . . . the list goes on. But in Victoria, a group of physicians, health practitioners and community-minded folks have come together to lay the foundations for the city’s first health cooperative, which will be having an open house this Saturday afternoon.

Thank you to all who participated in our most recent telelearning session, especially to our associates at BALTA, as well as Pat Conaty for his presentations!

For more information, please click here:

• Telelearning Sessions 8 & 9: Lessons in Sustainable Economics from the United Kingdom (April 9th & 10th, 2008; English)
  

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Farmers facing many challenges
Thirty-two years ago, Chittagong University economics professor, Mohammed Yunus asked Sufiya Khatun why she could not make a living constructing and selling her bamboo stools, which he saw were excellent. She replied that she must borrow for the cost of materials from the person who bought the finished stools, with the end result that she earned two cents a day.