Register your team today for UnionAID’s soon-to-be-legendary first annual Quiz Night.

Friday 11 May

Maranui Cafe, Lyall Bay

7 pm

$15 per person (includes snacks and fun)

UnionAID are fundraising for our projects run in conjunction with Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot on the Burma-Thailand border, and with Dalit workers in Tamil Nadu, India.

It’s also your chance to farewell Ross and Helen Wilson before they move to Rangoon for Ross to take up his new job as ILO Liaison.

Space is limited so get in quick to book a table for your team. Please distribute the poster to your networks and put one on your wall at work.

Register your team:  jeffs@nzno.org.nz by 9 May.

Standing Tall

Stunning photos of Dalit and Tribal workers from the Tamil Nadu Labour Union project

Supported by UnionAID

12^th –  25^th March

De Luxe cafe

Next to Embassy Theatre, Kent Terrace, Wellington

Supported by UnionAID

I caught up with a lot of reading over my Christmas-new year break, but I also improved my cooking repertoire and skills (I hope – ask my patient family) by trying several of the recipes from this neat little UnionAID cookbook. It cleverly blends an interesting range of South-East and South Asian recipes with an introduction to UnionAID’s projects. India, Singapore, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam are all represented – and I have probably missed some.

I’ve always been wary of food from these countries because I have a serious food allergy that turns up frequently in curries and sprinkled on their dishes. It’s easiest for me just to keep away from them despite hearing about how tasty they are. But the great thing about most of these recipes is that you don’t “add 2 tsps of curry powder”, thus laying yourself open to the scary unknowns of what might be in it. You make the curries yourself. You know exactly what you put in, and can miss out ingredients you don’t like or don’t like you. They can be as mild or hot as you want – though it takes a bit of experience to learn how much of the hot ingredients to put in. So I had a great first time making curries and creating other new flavours and textures that I had never experienced before. I was also helped midway by acquiring a decent blender, courtesy of some loyalty points scheme we’re in, and that is a great blessing unless you are good with a mortar and pestle.

I learned that making curries is actually not that much different from making a good Italian sauce, even though they usually have a more complicated set of ingredients and flavours. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true, right?), “curry” is an anglicised version of the Tamil word kari and just means “sauce”. It is important to bring out the flavours in the curry paste you have created before chucking in the rest of the ingredients. But you soon learn that no two curries are the same.

I made the Burmese Cauliflower and Tomato Stir Fry several times. It’s easy once you’ve tried it and is another way to add something to cooked cauliflower’s rather bland taste. Tinned tomatoes would probably do as well as fresh ones for this dish, but it might also be a way to use the ones that have got too ripe for a salad.

We gorged ourselves on the Kerala Egg Curry from Southern India. (A guide as to how many people the recipes serve would be very handy if the book is reprinted.) I was timid with the chillies – next time I might go for a bit more heat.  But subtle flavours, quick to prepare, and I love hard-boiled eggs.

I need to try the Burmese Pork and Lemongrass Curry again. I haven’t conquered cooking with lemongrass (which colleagues say is not to be missed, but I thought was over-rated and over-priced), and the dish ended up rather soupy and the lemongrass rather fibrous so I obviously did something wrong. But it was a simple recipe with attractive flavours so it’s worth trying.

The Spicy Lamb Curry contains potatoes, so you can vary the quantity of them according to numbers eating and the amount of rice you serve it with. With “two cans chopped tomatoes” it has a lot in common with an Italian casserole but of course with more heat and many different flavours.

The Chicken in Spicy Tomato and Yoghurt Sauce had wonderful flavours (needed for a boring meat like chicken!) and yoghurt adds a distinctive freshness to the dish.

My favourite (but perhaps I am biased from one of the endless series of cooking shows) was the Green Thai Fish Curry. It needs some ingredients we didn’t have in the house, like belacan (shrimp paste), fish sauce, lemongrass and coconut milk (you could get away with lemons instead of limes) but the multiple flavours of the curry and the creaminess of the coconut milk moisturise the fish creating a meal you’d want to make a regular part of your routine. Its only drawback is the ingredients, though once you have made the first outlay on belacan and fish sauce you have enough for a year’s supply!

Finally, the Tangy Thai Fish with Mint and Coriander is a simple and refreshing way to cook fish, which could be a lunch as well as evening meal.

I got a lot from this little book, partly because I’m just a starter in cooking recipes from these regions. For someone like me, it would be helpful to have photos of the finished dishes, though I understand that is easier said than done. But I thoroughly recommend the book. It’s good for your palate and good for the cause.

Bill Rosenberg.

February 2012

Note from UnionAID cookbook contributor: We commit to ensuring that Bill is better convinced of the subtle delights of lemon grass and also where best to find it and prepare it.

Hi all,

I’m Stephen Day – I work at TEU and I do some design work for the UnionAID team from time to time.  This year I’ve decided to run the Rotorua Marathon. Rotorua Marathon is one complete circle of Lake Rotorua and is New Zealand’s most run, and walked, marathon. It’s also one of the hardest marathons in New Zealand.

I’m going to run for UnionAID, and I’m looking for your sponsorship. The marathon is 26 miles and is on 28 April 2012.

I’ve never run a marathon before, but I have done a bit of competitive running – all distances from 800 metres up to half-marathons.  However, as Kiwi olympic medalist Barry Magee once said, “Anyone can run twenty miles. It’s the next six that count.”

To make it fair, because I’m already a runner, I’ll only take people’s money if I finish in the top ten.  That will require me, first, to finish both the training and the race.

You can sponsor me by leaving a comment below or emailing me at stephenday19@gmail.com You can also follow my training progress online to see how (and where) I am going.

Money pledged so far = $1942!

UnionAID Cookbook

Recipes from India and South East Asia

Limited edition – get yours NOW!

UnionAID has compiled a set of fabulous Indian and South East Asian recipes and is publishing these in a small but perfectly formed book of easy to make and delicious recipes – a cookbook you will really use and treasure – as well as being the perfect gift for all those friends and rellies who really do already have it all!

Flavours of Solidarity are on sale at the highly affordable price of only $10.00 – plus $2 postage and packing if ordered online.

Order one for yourself and several more for gifts. All profits raised will go to the UnionAID Tamil Nadu project and each dollar raised for UnionAID will be matched by the Morgan Foundation so will be doubled in value!

Flavours of Solidarity is on sale from the Wellington CTU Office for $10.00 per copy, from late October, OR; complete the on-line order form below.

Payment can be made by cheque or by online banking. Details of how to pay are in the order acknowledgment message and book(s) will be sent out once payment has been received.

Order, or pre-order NOW, online for $12.00

[contact-form-7]

1. New Projects in Sri Lanka, Mae Sot and the Pacific
2. Worker co-operatives: Tamil Nadu Labour Union leads the way
3. Meeting our fundraising target!
4. Raffle ticket winners
5. Getting skills for work
6. Notes from the Field: Update on Mae Sot Project
7. Online database a first for Tamil Nadu project
8. Comment
9. UnionAID cookbook

A new project in Sri Lanka, starting in the new year, will establish a Women’s Centre in Eastern Sri Lanka from which two organisers will provide support and union organisation for more than 5,000 Tamil women workers in garment factories which have been established in this area previously under the control of the Tamil Tigers.

In Mae Sot we are funding an extension to our very successful occupational skills training centre, to include cooking and embroidery skills. We are also establishing a scholarship programme to enable twenty graduates from the FTUB high school to gain vocational skills training at the Thai Government vocational training college.

UnionAID is also working with partners in Vanuatu and Samoa on possible projects which will help them to better protect the interests of workers coming to New Zealand on the seasonal employment scheme, and to organise a union for workers in the private sector in Samoa.

Generous support for our fundraising this year has made these projects possible. So a sincere thanks to all of our supporters.

The United Nations has claimed that co-operatives not only achieve the common goals of their members but also promote “poverty reduction, employment creation, empowerment of women and food security…” . Accordingly, they have declared next year as the International Year of Co-operatives.

So the Tamil Nadu Labour Union (TLU) is way ahead of the play. The focus of their work to date has been on participatory development, where Dalit (untouchable) and Tribal (indigenous) people are brought together so they can collectively identify their priorities and develop strategies to improve their lives. This first step has seen communities of more than 30,000 of the poorest and most oppressed people benefit from their union bargaining power. Building on this collective strength UnionAID is now funding a TLU project to set up five workers’ cooperatives. These will provide members with marketing and organisational skills to set them on a sustainable path to economic independence.

Helen Wilson