During Fairtrade Fortnight, children from 3 Thornbury primary schools spent a morning at the British Empire and Commonwealth museum in Bristol learning more about world trade systems, and the impact of fairtrade on the people that produce the foods.
Crossways Junior, Manorbrook and St Mary’s schools are all taking part in the South Glos fairtrade schools scheme, and have been doing a variety of different activities within school to raise awareness and understanding about this issue. The activity day at the museum supplemented this, and included a workshop on fairtrade run by the museum staff, and then a very interesting talk by Melba Estrada who is a fairtrade coffee grower from Nicaragua, and was visiting Bristol for the fortnight.
The children had the chance to ask Melba many questions about her life, and the difference that fairtrade brings, and they learnt how Melba’s children can now go to school because of the better income that she gets, and also how important it is to have the guarantee of a fair price for her coffee when she goes to market. However they also learnt that her lifestyle is still very hard, getting up at 4am every day to cook food for the family before going off to the fields at 5am, and not returning until 7pm.
Hannah and Ella from St Mary’s said 'You can read about it and see it on the Internet, but meeting a real person and hearing them say thank you makes Fair Trade real.'