The Church of England Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales – which covers Huddersfield, Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford and Ripon – is running a poster competition open to anyone living in the diocese.

Simply design an A4 poster in any medium advertising Fairtrade chocolate or Fairtrade cocoa.

Certificates & Fairtrade Easter Eggs will be awarded to the winners in 3 age-group categories:

• Adults (18+)
• Secondary School Age
• Pre-School & Primary School Age

To enter, scan the original artwork and email the image to Tina Walker at tinalet@hotmail.com. The name of the artist and their age-group should be written on the artwork, so that each piece is clearly identifiable.

Winners will be notified by email and asked to provide their original artwork for the Prize Presentation and Press

The closing date is 15 March 2015

The website of the Church of England Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales is at http://www.westyorkshiredales.anglican.org/

This year’s spectacular Christmas light ‘switch on’ in Skipton, on Thursday 27th November, will have an extra special Fairtrade flavour. The slogan for the town centre switch on will be ‘make it a local and Fairtrade Christmas.’  Shoppers are encouraged to support the wide variety of local shops and businesses in Skipton, not least the thriving market. Skipton, which has recently been declared a Fairtrade Town, has many businesses which sell or serve Fairtrade products, and it is the home of the dedicated Fair Trade shop ‘From the Source’ which sells a selection of high quality hand made gifts and fashion items.

Kaden’s winning poster

On the 27th, live entertainment will take place from 5pm to 8pm, just outside of the Town Hall. A brassband will play from 5.30, leading up to the grand illumination at 6pm. The lights will be switched on by the Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire, Mark Dawson, and the winner of the local and Fairtrade poster competition, Kaden, from Water Street Primary School. Over 200 entries were received in the competition to design a poster for the switch on and Kaden’s winning entry was chosen by a panel which included the Town Centre Manager and the Coordinator of Fairtrade Skipton. Many of Skipton’s businesses will be open for the evening. So come along and enjoy the magical atmosphere in the countdown to a Fairtrade Christmas.

Children at Kirkstall St.Stephens Primary School were the first School Council to trial the “Peer Educators toolkit” on Fairtrade, developed by Leeds Development Education Centre (DEC). The toolkit is designed so children are taught the activities first with their School Council teacher, then go on to become Peer Educators, teaching the activities to the rest of the school.

The toolkits are part of the EC funded ‘Global Fairness: Schools as Agents of Change’ project which empowers children to learn about injustice and take action to make the world a fairer place.

Three toolkits have been developed on the themes of Fairtrade, Garment Workers and Waste.

Hannah Langdana, project coordinator, said “The banana role play game went really well, all the children were morally outraged that the banana worker only receives a 1p of the 30p price of a banana. In fact the children were so shocked that the children playing the role of the supermarket gave them their share of the money saying ‘have this, we don’t need it!’ If only real life was so straightforward!”

Feedback from the children showed the pupils’ enjoyment and learning, with responses such as “I felt happy and thankful for the farmers” and “I have learnt that fair trade is a really big difference to people’s lives”.

Schools are still being invited to trial the toolkits of Fairtrade, Waste and Garment workers, until Christmas. If your school is interested in a free Fairtrade workshop, please contact Hannah@leedsdec.org.uk.

In September fairandfunky launched the 90kg rice challenge from Just Trading Scotland, aiming to sell 90kg of rice three times over!  Why 90kg? Because when a farmer sells 90kg of rice he raises enough money to send his child to school for a year. In Malawi, secondary school isn’t free so many children don’t get the opportunity to attend. In fact, only one in three Malawian children attend high school so through this challenge we can send children to school and end poverty through education. We can change the world for farmers and their families.

Over the last month, fairandfunky have led assemblies in schools, facilitated ‘Rice Challenge’ workshops, attended Food Festivals across Yorkshire and had support from Churches and Fairtrade Support Groups. 5 weeks on and fairandfunky have sold 141 bags of rice and are halfway through the challenge to sell 270 bags!  To find out how you can get involved with the fairandfunky rice challenge please visit http://www.fairandfunky.com/fair-and-funky-events/ .

A closely fought battle resulted in three overall winners for the 2014 Rotherham Primary Schools Fairtrade Poster Competition.

Talented youngsters from across Rotherham Borough competed to have their posters displayed at the Town Hall.

A presentation took place Thursday 17th July at Rotherham Town Hall, attended by students from St Mary’s RC Primary, Heringthorpe Junior & Infants, Bramley Grange Primary & St Bead’s RC Primary.  The children were accompanied by parents, siblings and school staff (including teachers).

Winners and highly commended entrants of the poster competition

The 1st 2nd & 3rd prize winners received vouchers and all of the children were presented with certificates & special Rotherham Fairtrade memory sticks by the Mayor of Rotherham.

During Fairtrade Fortnight, Maltby Academy students held a bake off competition to raise awareness of Fairtrade issues and help raise money for the Fairtrade Foundation. 

Five of the winning students presented Councillor Ken Wyatt of Fairtrade Rotherham with a cheque for £107.55.  Cllr. Wyatt talked to the students about the work of the Fairtrade Foundation and Yorkshire’s role as the UK’s first Fairtrade Region.

Tom (left) and Aimeth (third from right) with staff and students at Oasis Academy.

Fairtrade Yorkshire covers the Yorkshire and Humber Region and hence we support, not only Yorkshire folk in the promotion of the Fair Trade cause, but also the good people of northern Lincolnshire who live on the south bank of the Humber.  Fairtrade hotspot in this area is the town of Immingham which has an active campaign to gain Fairtrade status.  During Fairtrade Fortnight, Columbian banana farmer, Aimeth Angulo visited the town to support the campaign.

Tom Horton of Fairtrade Immingham spoke of Aimeth’s visit to the town’s Oasis Academy:

“Our students and staff thoroughly enjoyed meeting Aimeth – everyone noted her warmth and kindness. We managed to visit a number of classes who had prepared questions in advance for Aimeth, she delivered her presentation to a group of Year 8 students, toured the academy and had refreshments with those who she had been unable to meet. I have no doubt that the experience of meeting a Fairtrade producer will support our work throughout the town’s campaign and I’m quietly confident that sales of Fairtrade bananas will have gone through the roof!!! “

You can find out more about the Immingham campaign by checking out Facebook and the You Tube video below:

Facebook: Immingham Fairtrade Initiative

You Tube video

The third annual Yorkshire Schools Fair Trade conference has won praise for motivating and encouraging schools in their raising of awareness of global trade issues.  The Lord Mayor of York and representatives of the Cooperative, and local businesses, praised the varied and exciting programme that had been put together by the event organisers: the Centre for Global Education, York St. John University and the York Fair Trade Forum.

The Sheriff’s Lady, the Sheriff of York and the Lord Mayor of York arrive at the conference.

Helen and Sophie of the business ‘Fair and Funky’,
praised the conference.

Excellent presentations were given by Riccall Primary School, Cawood Primary School and York’s Bootham School.  Workshops took place on topics ranging from Fairtrade honey, to the price of a T-shirt role play.  The event concluded when the Lord Mayor of York presented the Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Awards and the Global Teacher Awards.

Tockwith School were one of the winners of the Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Awards and their pupils were clearly delighted.  The Church of England primary school are Eco Warriors and have been a Green Flag school for over four years.  Focus on Fairtrade is one of the five areas that Eco Warriors concentrate upon in Years four and five.

Tockwith School pupils.

Tom with competition judge, Juliana Mensah, Artist in Residence, Centre for Applied Human Rights.

Tom Haygarth, a student at York’s Fulford School,  has won a literary competition with his short story ‘Behind the Bars’. The tale looks at the lives of those who produce cocoa in West Africa.  It is an accessible and entertaining read, written in a confident and mature style; a well deserved winner.

Fulford School students with the book ‘Chocolate Factory’.

The competition was organised by the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, and by Amnesty International; its theme was chocolate and Human Rights.  Tom’s, and other winning stories, have been collected in a book ‘Chocolate Factory’, which is published by Stairwell Books.

Carleton Primary School receive their Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Award from the Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Julie Gunnell.

Carleton Primary School, near Skipton in Craven District, has just put in its application to become a Fairtrade School.  This marks the culmination of several years work and all pupils and staff have their fingers firmly crossed that they will be successful.

The school is no stranger to awards, having won a Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Award 2014, and two of their teachers have been presented with Global Teacher Awards, accredited by Liverpool Hope University.