The Church of England

One of our youth groups has persuaded the church to work
 towards achieving Fair trade status. Their campaign coincides
with national Fairtrade Fortnight beginning on 28 February.

Meeting every Monday, the girls are part of a programme called ‘Mettle’, which aims to ‘build the essential Christ-like qualities of courage, spirit and character’.

Jess Allan explained, ‘One week, the Mettle material was focused on the issue of poverty. We’d all learnt in school that we could make a difference to poverty simply by buying Fairtrade products. Mettle challenged us to take action.’

Buying a product with the FAIRTRADE mark provides a fair and stable price for producers, and gives an extra income—called the Fairtrade Premium—that allows the producers to invest in their community to bring about change for the future.

The girls found that although many of the parish groups use Fairtrade products when they can, not all of them do. They took the issue to the Parochial Church Counciland won agreement to apply for Fairtrade status, with its commitment for church groups to be active in promotingFairtrade and always use Fairtrade tea and coffee.

Sophie Preece concluded, ‘Our plan now is to conduct a survey to find out what people in Bowdon really think about fairly traded products, and to start a Fairtrade stall after Sunday morning worship.’

To find out more, or to join the Mettle Group, please contact Will Sudworth on Will@BowdonChurch.org.