Surviving Campaign Coffee

Posted by Sally

January 25, 2010

“I’m not one for putting letters after my name but if I was I’d have to put SCC after it, Survivor of Campaign Coffee.”

These were the opening words of John Bell at the London Diocese Fairtrade Conference last Saturday. The event is an annual conference, which this year had the title ‘Transforming Lives’, and aimed to inspire, encourage and help London churches in their support of fair trade. Having attended this same conference last year, when my work involvement in fair trade was new having just begun working at Shared Interest, I returned this year to run a Shared Interest stall having identified this as a great audience to tell about Shared Interest and learn more from with regards to their knowledge of fair trade. There were even some existing Shared Interest members at the conference, thank you for saying hello, and many people interested in finding out more about us, some only hearing the name ‘Shared Interest’ for the first time.

John Bell, of the Iona Community, ran much of the conference and included many songs throughout with faith based songs from all over the world chosen because of their support for fair trade and their messages of peace, justice, caring and togetherness. John also gave entertaining anecdotes of his experiences of economic justice, accompanied by meaningful questions such as ‘Can producers afford our affection for cheapness?’ and ‘Does our ability to pay for something entitle us to purchase it?’ There were also presentations by the Fairtrade Foundation, Divine and Cafe direct, which showed a fantastic video of their growers from all around the world.

I was supported at the stall by one of our new Ambassadors, Magaly, who had just returned to the UK from travelling overseas. Magaly brought a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the stall and was a great support and help at what was her first ‘experience’ of being a Shared Interest Ambassador who had been unable to attend the training sessions we ran at the end of last year, ‘on the job’ learning certainly seemed to boost her enthusiasm further.

This was a great day and it was nice to see many familiar but many new faces among those who attended and I hope the event inspired, encouraged and helped.