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BAFTS Conference
Jill Roberson of The Living Rooms, one of Norfolk’s biggest ethical trading outlets, has her faith in fair trade renewed.
I’ve been to the annual meeting of the British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS) this month - and if ever you wondered just whether trading ethically makes a difference, then an event like this is the place to go to get confirmation.
And it’s not just the financial aspect of paying a fair price that’s important - although of course it is. It’s only when you hear individual stories that you start to realise what a real difference it can make.
It was interesting that in the week when Home Secretary Jackie Smith spoke about how those rescued from people traffickers should be deported back to their country of origin, that one of the case studies we heard about was a project in India helping women who had themselves been rescued from such evil.
It seems that Britain is not the only culture to shun the victims. In India, the rescued people - and especially the women - are not welcomed back into their communities, where they are regarded as a problem. “What have you brought them back for?” is a commonly asked question.
So with nowhere to go and no prospect of employment, how are these victims to set about rebuilding their lives? It is generally assumed, often but not always correctly, that women victims of people trafficking will have been involved in the sex trade - and in many cultures that makes them beyond the pale.
The project we heard about gives such women access to education, health, immunisation and sustainable employment. And it’s made possible by western countries trading fairly with it to provide a sustainable source of income: not handouts, but rather a fair and equitable slice of the wealth which the women themselves have created.
When you hand over your money in exchange for fairly for ethically traded goods, this is what you are supporting. It genuinely does make a difference.
Perhaps the best thing anyone has said to me all year was at the Fair Trade fair at the Forum during Fair Trade Fortnight in March. A chap from Senegal came up and we got chatting. He of course sees first hand how fair trade can help. He told me, “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you care - and you don’t even know us.”
Perhaps we should all make a bit more of an effort to get to know people in the developing world. Then we would be renewed in our efforts to create a world in which everyone is treated fairly.
Article published in Eco Echo November 2007 |
