The Salvation Army is promoting this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight, which commences today, March 6th. The organisation says the campaign gives the chance to “make a new habit of making a difference”.
The two-week campaign looks to promote fair trade, which is something that aims to guarantee producer organisations a fair and stable price for their produce, and allows them to cover their costs, enabling them to feed and look after their families.The fortnight hopes to provide the opportunity to speak out for fair-trade so that farmers get the chance to invest in a brighter future.
The Salvation Army is promoting the ethos that fair trade can also be a positive and viable way forward for consumers, and hopes to reveal to the general public just how much difference they can make to the lives and livelihoods of their neighbours in the developing world who produce much of the food the western world consumes.
An entire range of free resources has been launched to support the campaign, and these are available from the Fairtrade Foundation to allow promotion in schools and workplaces as well as churches and community centres.
The campaign encourages people to make a conscious choice to “go Fairtrade”, by simply buying the products that have been marked with the Fairtrade logo on sale in the majority of supermarkets.As a fair-trade organisation, The Salvation Army has been quick to bring awareness to the campaign, and since joining in 2004, many of the Army’s centres and churches across the UK have started to stock and serve fair-trade products as part of their activities and community works.
The Salvation Army testifies one of its policies which demands that Fairtrade products be the preferred option if possible. Also with its work in the developing world, a focus is always placed on Fairtrade principles to enable people to get the best deal they can for products they produce.
It is hoped that through this campaign and the Fairtrade principles that an opportunity will be opened up for education, better health prospects and a sustainable, steady income for the people involved in developing countries.
