Report presented at AGM on 25 October 2012
It is very appropriate that our meeting tonight is in the middle of One World Week.
I would like to bring you up to date on what has been happening with the Winchester City Fairtrade Network over the past year and to share some future plans.
Thank you to everyone on our committee who make my job so easy:- Rosemary Dunhill our Secretary, David Lloyd our Treasurer and Webmaster, Dave Morton our invaluable contact with Winchester University, Kathy East and Jeannette Archdeacon who have strong links with schools, churches and the wider community. Cllr Linda Gemmell from WCC has unfortunately not managed to attend any meetings but has agreed to find a substitute.
Fairtrade Fortnight 27 February to 11 March 2012
The Banner advertising Fairtrade Fortnight was across the High Street.
The Big Brew was celebrated at St Mark’s Oliver’s Battery, tea and Coffee morning with cakes and Fairtrade goods for sale, at The Hub, Wickham Community Centre, Mill Lane, with an opportunity to find out why Fairtrade is important, and a chance for schools to find out how to become a Fairtrade School and at Abbey House some children from St Peter’s school visited the Mayor Cllr Barry Lipscome for tea and biscuits and presented him with a basket of Fairtrade goods and spoke about their work as a Fairtrade school.
A talk on Palestine – a story of Fair Trade under occupation, hosted by St Peter’s church at the Milner Hall. Taysir Arbasi, the director of Zaytoun, and olive farmer Riziq abu Nasser spoke of the challenges facing the company and farmers living and working under occupation. Zaytoun works with over 50 farmer co-operatives throughout the West Bank, sourcing fairly traded olive oil and other products. There was also a display from the Centre for Global Awareness.
A Gala event was held at West Downs Business School, Romsey Road. This was organised and hosted by the Events Management students at Winchester University and our thanks go to Dave Morton and the students for the success of this event. The evening started with a talk The Co-operative – tackling global poverty given by Helen Carter, owner of the Andover fair trade shop Fayres Fair and member of the Solent Area Committee and a Regional Board member of the Co-operative. This was followed by the Gala Dinner, a three-course meal using local and fair trade ingredients. Andy Mckenzie of Lainston House was bringing two of his chefs to prepare the food alongside the University catering team. This was an excellent opportunity for Fairtrade and Local foods to be highlighted and discussed.
Many people from Winchester attended the Hampshire Fairtrade Network AGM in Basingstoke where a large number of schools displayed and gave presentations on their work on Fairtrade. Their knowledge and passion was evident. Also present was Becca Rowland of Fairtrade Foundation’s Campaign Advisory Group who is working to ensure that local campaigners and groups/networks can make appropriate input to the Foundation’s plans and practices. Rosemary Dunhill had attended a Traidcraft campaigns event in London. Traidcraft’s main emphasis for the 2012 Fairtrade Fortnight was on the campaign for a supermarkets watchdog to prevent the exploitation of farmers and producers. Those present had been encouraged to write a verse urging their MP to support this campaign for inclusion in a Valentine card. Steve Brine received one from Rosemary.
Kathy East works closely with the Centre for Global Awareness which had received a grant from the Fairtrade Foundation last year to enable them to work with 12 Hampshire schools towards Fairtrade School status. St Peter’s remains the only Fairtrade school in the Winchester area.
Future Plans
Fairtrade Fortnight is from 25 February to 10 March 2013. Plans are underway to build on the success of this last year. The committee will contact more schools in the area about Fairtrade fortnight and inform them about the training given by the Centre for Global Awareness on the subject ‘Learn about your world’. We hope to fund a school for this. We intend to book space in St Maurice’s covert for a sale of Fairtrade goods, inviting the various people we have been in touch with who sell Fairtrade goods. The University will again be organising an event during Fairtrade Fortnight and we look forward to their proposals.
We will be looking at ways to link Fairtrade with Trade Justice in the events we organise.
We would welcome more people to join the committee. Please contact me or anyone else on the committee if you are interested.
Charlotte Bailey
Chairman