Fairtrade Fortnight is a time for debates and discussions, celebrations and chocolate tastings (of the fairtrade variety!). Yesterday, I debated, discussed, celebrated and…well no chocolate tasting yet. I was at Imperial College in London speaking along with Taysir from Palestine who is here in the UK for Fairtrade Fortnight to talk about the olive oil he is involved in producing. This Olive Oil, sold here in the UK by Zaytoun, is one of the many things to be celebrated this Fairtrade Fortnight. The oil has just received it’s fairtrade certification and was launched on Monday by the Co-op.
A modest but enthusiastic group of students gave up their lunch break to come and hear Taysir and myself speak about our work. Taysir spoke of the hugely valuable impact working under fairtrade had on the work of himself and those he works with. I spoke of the role of Shared Interest in the fairtrade movement and the challenges we face to increase our share capital to enable us to support more producers like Taysir.
After our presentations the audience approached us enthusiastically wanting more information and to find out more about how they could get involved and the discussions continued over fairtrade teas and coffees. The group at Imperial have a number of other activities planned over Fairtrade Fortnight, including a cheese and wine evening and a market stall with fairtrade products.
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Click here to learn how you can invest in fair trade. Click here to donate to the Shared Interest Foundation |
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