Fairtrade Assembly
Fairtrade Assembly
1. The assembly is based on a research project for Fair Do's, funded by the Welsh
Government through Hub Cymru Africa. The aim of the research was to discover what impact we in Wales are having on communities in Africa when we purchase fair trade products.
2 – 5 Guess the Fairtrade product. Present one clue at a time – pupils to shout out answers. Make the point that these products cannot be grown easily in Wales as we don't have the right climate to grow them. They're grown in some of the world's warmest countries, and many of them also happen to be some of the world's poorest countries where people may not have enough food to eat; or they may have to walk far to fetch clean water; or children may not be able to attend school.
6. Ask the pupils what they know about Fairtrade. Look out for answers such as:
Fairtrade is about making sure that farmers and workers are paid better prices for producing some of our favourite food and drink.
Fairtrade guarantees decent working conditions e.g. no child labour.
Fairtrade guarantees fair terms of trade for farmers and workers.
Farirtrade helps protect the environment and guarantees local sustainability.
Fairtrade supports the development of thriving farming and worker communities that have more control over their futures and protecting the environment in which they live and work.
7. One of the reasons why Fairtrade is important is because so many children around the world are not attending school – as many as 124 million children around the world are not attending school, with many of them in some of the world's poorest countries where Fairtrade works.
Maybe you could ask what it is some of the children like about attending school.
8. The population of Wales is around 3.1 million people.
9. If we wanted to reach the figure of 124 million people, we'd need 40 countries the size of Wales!
10. One organisation that's helping to change this is Cards from Africa.
Formed in 2003 to provide dignified, secure employment to orphans in Rwanda, making environmentally friendly cards from recycled paper (which they make themselves).
They currently have 100 staff – 75 card-makers; 5 paper makers; 20 management, supervisors, security, cleaning staff. Due to the challenges they've experienced in their young lives, the majority will not have completed even primary education.
They produce 27,000 cards a month!
One important point to make is that card-makers are paid more than teachers, soldiers, nurses – despite the fact that they will not have had much education.
The back of the card has been signed by the person who made it, and they make Welsh cards especially for Fair Do's, the Fairtrade shop in Canton, Cardiff!
More than 200 orphaned families have been helped so far.
It's a stepping stone organisation – many staff have gone on to start businesses, do night-classes or invest in siblings' / own children's education.
11. Buying these cards could help make sure that one child in Rwanda can attend school for 1 year. Buying396 could pay for a child's education for one year:
–buying 36 cards could pay for a school uniform
–buying 90 cards all the books and stationery a child would need at school
–buying 270 cards could pay for school fees for one child for one year (education isn't free in Rwanda as it is for us in Wales).
If everyone in your school bought a card, could you buy enough cards to help pay for a child's education in Rwanda?
12. Florence’s Story
Florence was eight years old when her family was forced to flee Rwanda because of the
genocide. Miraculously, her brothers, sisters, and mother all escaped to the Congo, but
her father, who helped the family get away, was caught before he reached the border and
was burned to death.
They had to scrape by for years to make ends meet, but despite their best efforts they didn’t have enough for basic needs, such as health care. After years of hard work to support the family, Florence’s mother passed away when she contracted malaria and could not pay for medicine.
Florence and her siblings were able to return to Rwanda, but finding consistent work was
next to impossible because she had not finished primary school.
After she found Cards from Africa her life dramatically turned around. Not only did it
enable her to pay for food, shelter, and medicine, but she was able to save a lot of money
and started putting her son through some good education and start up her own business.
“My life was hard, and I was not able to finish school,” she said. “But my son will not have
a life like that. He will get a good education and have an exceptional life.”
Florence left CfA to run her own business, having been in the CfA family for 8 years.
13. You don't need to buy many cards to know that you're making a real difference to the card-makers.
–buying just 1 card could pay for 1kWh of electricity
–buying 2 cards could pay for 1kg of seeds so they can grow food to eat
–buying 6 cards could pay a farming tool
–buying 23 cards could pay for a mosquito net which helps protect children and their parents from malaria
14. It's not only cards that help pay for children's education in Africa, but Fairtrade coffee does too!
Ask: How many children drink coffee? Probably not many.
Kuloba Charles is your average fair trade coffee farmer from Uganda, working for Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative. He is 45 years old and has four children. He has 3 acres of land, two of which are used to grow coffee (the other acre is used to grow food and other crops that provides additional income).
Hehas 220 treesonhisfarmandin 2015 earned£578 fromgrowingcoffee. Thisdoesn’tsoundlikemuch, butitwasenoughmoneytoensurehisfourchildrenareattendingschool; thefamilyhasenoughtoeat;theirhealthneedsaremet; andhehasenoughmoneytopayforlabourtohelponthefarmandotheressentialssuchasmobilephoneairtimeandparaffinforcooking.
Driking fair trade coffee can help ensure that Kuloba Charles is earning enough money to pay for all of this, including sending his four children to school.
15. But you only need 14 people drinking one cup of Fairtrade coffee a day to help make sure a Fairtrade coffee farmer in Uganda can send their 4 children to school!
16. And you only need 55 people drinking one cup of Fairtrade coffee a day to make sure a Fairtrade coffee farmer in Uganda can meet all their family's needs – which includes all their healthcare needs; all the costs involved in growing coffee; and anything else they need to enjoy life, such as mobile phone airtime.
17. And it's not just us saying that Fairtrade is a good thing. These coffee farmers from Uganda visited Wales in May 2016 (Patrick is on the left and Joachim is on the right).
Patrick said: "It is because of fair trade that most of my family have received an education. Because of fair trade, we have constructed good houses, primary schools, health centres; we have more clean water and better roads."
18. So Fairtrade is making a big difference around the world and you really don't need to buy much to know that you're helping some of the world's poorest families earn enough money to meet all their needs and make sure their children are attending school so hopefully, when they grow up they will be able to get good jobs.