Fairtrade Foundation Supporter Conference
There was an excited ‘buzz’ on Saturday at the Fairtrade Foundation’s Supporter Conference. The announcement that DFID have given £12million pounds to the Fairtrade Foundation started the conference off with a bang. This finance, which will be used to support fair trade producers in achieving fair trade status, was announced by Douglas Alexander to a room of 400 fairtrade supporters. Proceedings moved to the awarding of the Fairtrade Fortnight Awards which were sponsored by the Shared Interest Foundation.
Shared Interest’s involvement didn’t stop with the sponsoring of the awards. The winners of the Outstanding Achievement Award are Burgess Hill Fairtrade Steering Group headed by a Shared Interest Ambassador (Robert Eggleston), the best Fairtrade Event was won by fair trade in Bolton and the event was attended by Ruth Taylor (Supporter Relations officer for the North). Finally, the winning photograph, taken by Simon Kimber, features myself in my much loved fair trade banana costume as I was joined by Shared Interest Ambassador Kim Hull and her daughters at the Fairtrade Fortnight Finale of ‘Go Bananas’, a fair trade flash mob in Trafalgar Square. We were shown the preview of the activities for Fairtrade Fortnight 2010, with the theme ‘The Big Swap’, focusing on getting people to swap their cup of tea for a fair trade cup of tea.
In between the workshops and debate at the conference Shared Interest held a stall in the market place where we were assisted by Ambassador Pat Wallace and visited by Ralph Eales, Iain and Shelagh Baird-Smith as well as numerous members and potential members and Ambassadors. We spoke to many fair trade supporters who were hearing about Shared interest for the first time, which showed we still have a long way to go in disproving our theory that we are ‘Fairtrade’s best kept secret’. However, by getting involved in events such as the Supporter’s Conference we are on our way to becoming ‘Fairtrade’s best known secret’. We need your help in doing this. Do you know a group who would like to hear more about Shared Interest? A school involved in fair trade and may be interested in learning how they can get involved with Shared Interest? Perhaps you could spare some time to join our network of Ambassadors to volunteer time in helping us raise awareness and investment? As Renwick made clear, it is only by working together that we can see the change we want. Many drops make great rivers flow.
|
Click here to learn how you can invest in fair trade. |
|
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment