Fairtrade Foundation blog ; “Stourbridge celebrates becoming a Fairtrade Town”

11 Mar 2011 6:59
By Hannah Reed, Campaign Manager, Fairtrade Foundation

A cold and windy night in the West Midlands and I arrived at St Thomas’s Church to find the entrance, courtyard, walls and trees smothered with meter upon meter of Fairtrade cotton bunting, all hand-designed by people across Stourbridge. A truly magical sight and just a taster of what was inside! Hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate Stourbridge joining the grassroots movement in the UK of over 500 Fairtrade Towns.

From the local primary school, to the Deputy Mayor of Dudley Council, local Councillors, local shop managers, former and current MPs, supporters, shoppers, church representatives and college students – all sectors of the community were out in force to celebrate their collective achievement.
The hall was quite literally covered in beautiful Fairtrade cotton bunting, each triangle representing one statement of support for Fairtrade and trade justice for cotton farmers. And that’s the beauty of Fairtrade. It would be hard to imagine another issue or occasion that would bring together quite so many people from different walks of life, or an issue on which quite so many people could agree and, more importantly act.
After the Deputy Mayor cut the ribbon to declare Stourbridge Fairtrade Town officially open, Julie Bate, who works at the local Sainsbury’s, spoke powerfully about her recent trip to visit ground-nut farmers in Malawi.
Julie visited new nut processing facilities, made possible through a unique partnership, involving Comic Relief, the Sainsbury’s Fair Development Fund and Liberation (a dedicated 100% Fairtrade nut company) and spoke of the pride and hope of the farmers she met and their ambitions to become even stronger through working together. She was visibly moved while describing the poverty she saw in Malawi and the overwhelming dignity, kindness and humor of the people she met and their hope for the future.
By bringing people together, Fairtrade proves that the way it’s always been, is not the way it needs to be. There is an alternative. So let’s raise a glass to Stourbridge Fairtrade Town and the farmers of Malawi and join them in reshaping trade so it works for all of us. Back to Fairtrade page