VIDEO – Fairtrade Fortnight ends with Awards Ceremony

Fair Trade Fortnight has come to an end with awards being made by The Lord Provost, The Rt Hon Donald Wilson at a ceremony held this morning at Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street. OOTB were holding one of their regular brunches where Fair Trade goods are firmly on the menu. There were several stalls selling Fair Trade goods , and speakers at the awards ceremony included Tomy Mathews, a Fair Trade Producer from Fair Trade Association Kerala, India.

Malcolm Brown Director of Corporate Communications at Scotmid who sponsored today’s event said:- ” I am delighted that Scotmid has been able to support the event and we hope to continue to do so. The theme of this year is Go Further for Fair Trade  and after my recent trip to Cuba and the coffee farms there I believe that is an understatement. We have such a long way to go.

It is great that we will be back here again next year, but during that time we have  to go further.  I am sure that we will.”

The Lord Provost The Rt Hon Donald Wilson said:-“For everyone who was nominated here today the winners were very hard to pick.” He then proceeded to give out three certificates to the winners in each category of the Lord Provost’s awards.

The ethical media publishing company, Hand Up Media were announced as winners of the Achievement Award. They have a website here and are based in Annandale Street Lane.

The Fair Trade newcomer Award was won by Summerhall who sell Fair Trade goods in their cafe, and the Fair Trade Faith Community Award was won by South Leith Parish Church who have participated in Fair Trade for over 30 years including running an exchange programme with students from Kenya and by using Fair Trade products in their cafe where they provide free breakfasts for the homeless .

The Fair Trade Schools Award was announced earlier this week. This was shared by Dean Park and Leith Primary Schools:-Dean Park Primary School won an award for their embedded approach to Fair Trade across all ages Nursery to P7, demonstrating evidence to show 8 years of commitment and a very strong link to their local Fair Trade group in Balerno.

Leith Primary School won their award for their strong links with Uganda through the Budongo project at Edinburgh Zoo, an enterprise project on Fair Trade school uniforms, their strong links with the community, and an active Fair Trade committee.

Fairtrade Fortnight brings together consumers, retailers, licensees, businesses, producers and campaigners nationwide to promote awareness and sales of Fairtrade products and to campaign on issues of trade justice, and of particular significance this year is the fact that Scotland has become a Fair Trade nation at the very beginning of the fortnight.

International Development Minister Humza Yousaf MSP said at the time of the announcement:-

“We can all help through daily decisions about what we buy – it may not seem a big deal to buy Fair Trade products, but each time we do we help protect families and communities across the world. Scotland is a rich nation, and our values mean we are duty-bound to help those less fortunate.

“People in every city and across all local authority areas share a vision of Scotland as a good global citizen, committed to playing its part in addressing poverty. That vision includes our commitment to Malawi, to take the lead in climate change, to promote clean drinking water and explains why we have doubled our International Development Fund to £9 million since 2007/08.

“I thank every person, business and organisation who has helped Scotland towards achieving Fair Trade Nation status. In particular I commend the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, who have been instrumental in driving forward our Fair Trade Nation agenda. We must now build on today’s achievement and continue to work hard to encourage even greater Scottish support for Fair Trade.”