Scotland has been a Fair Trade Nation for 10 years and our school, St John the Baptist in Uddingston, has been a Fair Trade school for more than 2 years. A Fair Achiever school teaches students where their food comes from, what is meant by 'fairness' and evaluates how Fair Trade can work to address unfairness in supply chains. As a school community we have been actively involved in Fair Trade since 2010.
"A Fair Achiever school teaches students where their food comes from, what is meant by 'fairness' and evaluates how Fair Trade can work to address unfairness in supply chains."
Fair Trade Nation
As part of the 10 year Fair Trade Nation celebrations, an event was held at the Scottish Parliament in May. Students from our class were invited along by Colin Smyth MSP and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum to represent FairAchiever schools. Through our topic we have been learning about democracy in class and understand how important having a say is, to ensure Scotland is a good place to live and that we are good global citizens.
We were honoured to put forward our class’s support for Fair Trade and to highlight the voices of children in Malawi who do not get the chance to have their voices heard. It’s so important that our MSPs know what is important to us in our communities and in Scotland as a whole. We heard from people who have been supporting Fair Trade for much longer than we’ve been alive! We were able to meet so many MSPs and Scottish people who also care about Fair Trade. On the night 16 MSPs signed a pledge to support Scotland’s #FairTradeFuture, bringing the total to 59. Our class has written to a further 3 MSPs asking them to also sign the pledge.
"The most important part of the night for us was hearing from the children in Malawi about the differences buying Fair Trade makes to their lives."
Malawi Connections
The most important part of the night for us was hearing from the children in Malawi about the differences buying Fair Trade makes to their lives. In Malawi, secondary school is not free to attend and many parents are farmers who do not earn a lot of money. Receiving a fair price for their products can help towards providing a secondary education for their children. As global citizens we cannot forget about people around the world who face poverty and are also dealing with the added impact of the climate crisis on their livelihoods. That’s not fair and we have learned through our Democracy topic and visiting Parliament that global citizens use their voices to represent others, especially those whose voices are not heard.
To continue on our journey as global citizens, we took on the 90kg Rice Challenge. The families of Faithy and Catherine in Malawi grow Kilombero Rice and for them selling 90kg of rice on Fair Trade terms earns enough money to send a child to secondary school for one year. We are delighted to say that we managed to complete the challenge and sold every bag!
"It’s so important that our MSPs know what is important to us in our communities and in Scotland as a whole."
We’re proud of the action we’re taking and how we represented the school, our class and the girls in Malawi at the Scottish Parliament, speaking alongside MSPs, the Minister for International Development and Fair Trade campaigners. We will continue as a school to develop as global citizens who understand that when you have the chance to represent issues you care about you have a responsibility to use the opportunity to campaign for change.
