Fair Enough Fairtrade newsletter for schools across Yorkshire no 1, March 2011 Contents: Fairtrade Fortnight, Sock puppets, Bunting, Bees and more! Created by Leeds DEC in partnership with Craven DEC, and the Centre for Global Education York Schools across Yorkshire have been very busy creating Fairtrade bunting to help create a new world record! The Fairtrade Foundation set the country a challenge: to break the world record for the longest continual piece of bunting to help tell more people about how Fairtrade cotton protects the livelihoods of cotton farmers and to pressure decision-makers to make trade fairer for cotton farmers in West Africa To find out Yorkshire s response, see page 4
Fairtrade Fortnight got off to an excellent start with Fairtrade Yorkshire s first ever Get Ready for Fairtrade Fortnight event! "I have seen the difference Fair trade makes It is a simple idea that has had an astonishing impact It's a way we can help our neighbours to improve their own lives" Hilary Benn MP 2 Hilary Benn MP addressing delegates Fairtrade Yorkshire and Leeds DEC hosted a very successful Get ready for Fairtrade Fortnight event on Jan 21 st 2011, in partnership with Fairtrade Yorkshire, at Leeds University The event, funded by the EU and the Fairtrade Foundation, had over 80 schools, Fairtrade supporters, fair trade retailers and DEC s attending Participants had the opportunity to hear from Hilary Benn MP about the importance of fair trade, find out about the Fairtrade Yorkshire s Sock Puppet competition, network with experienced fair trade retailers, and plan events for Fairtrade Fortnight together Linda McAvan, the MEP who chairs the EU fair trade working party, closed the event She emphasised the importance of continued lobbying of MPs and MEPs on fair trade issues by telling the partcipants that although fair trade was a powerful tool for change not all influential interest groups supported it Thanks so much for a great afternoon on Friday We came away with lots of good ideas and our minds focused on all things Fairtrade now just got to keep that momentum going! Liz Kingsley, Bradford Grammar School
Fairtrade Fortnight highlights from across the region: Cocoa Farmers come to Yorkshire 3 Harriet Boatemaa from Ghana Children with their bunting at South Craven School Over a hundred children from ten primary schools met Harriet Boatemaa and Fatima Ali, two cocoa farmers from Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana at South Craven School in Cross Hills on March 4th They learnt a lot about cocoa production and the difference Fairtrade is making to communities in Ghana More schools Cotton onto Fairtrade Children at Swinnow Primary school in Leeds, celebrating their bunting success with Fairtrade icecream, kindly provided by Leeds Co-operative Society also on March 4 th
4 Over 3000 bunting flags have been decorated by schools across Yorkshire St John s CE Primary Knaresborough was one of the schools involved: Hannah Clarke (FT Coordinator), Emma Higgins (Head) Lee Byers (Tea seller at the Fairtrade Foundation) Andrew Jones (Harrogate MP) and Valerie Mount ( School governer for Steering Group) with pupils, bunting and the famous Fairtrade inflatable banana Ripon retain Fairtrade Status! Local Schools(pictured are students from Ripon Grammar)and local businesses worked hard with the Fairtrade City forum to make this happenone of the events included encouraging local residents and school pupils to decorate bunting Local MP Julian supported the event held at Ripon Sainsbury's supermarket
5 Pupils sock a Fairtrade message Leeds DEC and Fairtrade Yorkshire to promoted Fairtrade cotton through a Sock Puppet film competition for young people across the county We ran workshops in schools and other groups to make sock puppets and devise short films where they were the stars with a very important message The competition ended on Sunday 13 th March, but the semi finalists will be left on the Fairtrade Yorkshire website until Wednesday March 30th Log onto wwwfairtradeyorkshireorguk click on Watch on YouTube icon at the bottom of each video and vote for your favourite The winning pupils will be invited to a special award ceremony and receive a Fairtrade goody bag School support? Would you appreciate stimulating workshops, thought provoking training and support from people with real expertise to help you attain Fairtrade School status? Your local DEC may well be able to help! Craven DEC: liz@cravendecorguk Centre for Global Education York: Rosina Gilboy RGilboy@yorksjacuk and Mariela Muñoz del Valle MMunozdelValle@yorksjacuk Leeds DEC for West Yorkshire: Hannah Dalrymple hannah@leedsdecorguk DEC South Yorkshire: Rob Unwin robunwin@decsyorguk It was inspirational Yr 5 teacher about Leeds DEC s Fairtrade teacher training
6 And finally Hap-Bee Day March 2011 To support Fairtrade Fortnight Burnsall VA Primary School held its first ever Hap-Bee day! Children and staff wanted to create a buzz about Fairtrade Children in KS2 have been learning all about Fairtrade and the benefits of supporting such a worthy cause School was buzzing all day, as our very own swarm of bees were buzzzzy hard! A visit by Wharfdale Bee Keepers Association in the afternoon enabled us all to learn a little bit more about bees and the important jobs they do! Want to submit your school case study? Email a paragraph (no more than 100 words) and a photo to hannah@leedsdecorguk before June 17th 2011 Useful Links: wwwfairtradeorguk/schools wwwfairtradeyorkshireorguk wwwpapapaaorg/ wwwtraidcraftschoolscouk/ DEC websites: wwwcravendecorguk wwwcentreforglobaleducationorg wwwdecsyorguk wwwleedsdecorguk Publishing Organisation: 233-237 Roundhay Road Leeds LS8 4HS Tel: 0113 380 5655 Fax: 0113 380 5656 Email: hannah@leedsdecorguk The project "Awareness for Fairness" has been funded with support from the European Commission The contents of these actions are the sole responsibility of contractor and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union