We started Fairtrade Fortnight with a whole school assembly to remind everyone of the aims and work of Fairtrade. The children looked at the supply chain and saw that the supermarket, the ripener, the shipper, the exporter and the farmer all need to be paid for their work. By the time everyone else in the supply chain has been paid, the farmers sometimes do not receive a fair amount of money for their hard work. Fairtrade aims to ensure that the farmers receive a fair price for the vital role that they play. In addition to this, the Fairtrade Premium is an extra sum of money which can be spent on anything that can benefit the farmers, their families and the community.
The Fairtrade prefects, along with a team of actors from Japan and Sierra Leone classes, prepared a drama titled ‘Protecting People and Planet’ to explain the threats to the rainforest and show how human actions impact on this environment. They showed how Fairtrade is important and demonstrated how we can protect the rainforests by ensuring that those that live and work there are paid fairly.
In class worship this week, we watched the film ‘Guardians of the Rainforest,’ which taught us about forest friendly farming technique used by the Ngoleagorbu cocoa farmers in the Gola rainforest in Sierra Leone. Here are some of the children’s comments and reflections:
Robyn: "It made me realise how easy our lives were. It isn’t fair that they have to walk such a long way for clean drinking water."
Martina: "They have to work a lot harder for the things we take for granted. It made me realise how lucky we are."
Benedict: "I learnt that many children are not able to go to secondary school in Sierra Leone as it is very expensive and they often have to travel to another town. Fairtrade helps more people to attend secondary school and college."