Archbishop’s message for Fairtrade Yorkshire
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu has sent us this message for Fairtrade Yorkshire:
“Last year estimated sales of Fairtrade products reached £1.32bn, which was a 12% increase on the previous year. Fairtrade has been a massive success since its launch twenty years ago. Gradually but definitely, our shopping habits are changing.
The Archbishop of York on a visit to the Ivory Coast
In 2009 I visited the Ivory Coast to see the impact Fairtrade chocolate here would have on disadvantaged cocoa farmers there. It’s a country ground down by poverty and riven by conflict. Life expectancy and literacy are low. In places where there had never been schools, the cooperatives are able, with the help of the Fairtrade premium and Nestlé, to create elementary education for their children and build a health centre serving local workers and their families.
In January 2012, Mr Fasseri from the Kavokiva Co-op on the Ivory Coast visited the Manor School in York, as part of the Archbishop of York’s Youth Leaders’ Programme. His picture is on the 4 bar KIT KAT. His initiative and drive were inspiring. It is people like him who, with our active goodwill, can change the fortunes of the poor. So keep up the good work to support and use the Fairtrade branded goods in as many places as possible where you live, it can make all the difference.”
