The Fair Trade Store Blog

Playfair 2012: Campaigning for a sweat free Olympics

As London gears up to host the 2012 Olympics, we look here at the story behing the glitz and glamour of the occasion and of the pressure some of the biggest sports brands are being put under to make sure these are a “sweat free Olympics”.

In the UK alone, sportswear sales in 2010 were estimated to be £4.5 billion, with Nike and Adidas the global leaders and Pentland (the makers of Speedo), the largest UK-based brand.
These household names will have a high profile at London 2012, and their sales and profits are predicted to rise as the Games approach.

Yet these are the very brands who are routinely breaking every rule in the book when it comes to labour rights. Workers making sportswear still suffer from excessive working hours, poverty wages, temporary contracts and unstable employment and denial of union rights.

The Playfair 2012 campaign is working to raise the bar on these rights. Brands working under the Olympic banner of fairness, equality and respect should be doing more to end slavery and exploitation in the sportswear industry.

As an example, the minimum monthly wage in Indonesia, where a lot of sports gear is manufactured, is £67, yet a living wage sufficient to feed, clothe, shelter and educate a worker and his or her children is £129 – roughly double the minimum wage. Here, the minimum wage is rarely surpassed – leaving the garment workers struggling well below the poverty line.
And this is all happening right now, in 2012. Surely this situation needs to change?

If these facts have prompted you to think again about this issue, you can TAKE ACTION today to call on Adidas, Nike and Pentland to pay workers a living wage, respect union rights and ensure workers have job security.
Simply visit the Labour Behind the Label website to register your views.
Labour Behind The Label is part of the campaign coalition and supporting garment workers worldwide.

There is much more information available on the Playfair 2012 website, including videos and all the latest news about this campaign.

Let`s work together to make these a “sweat free Olympics” that the whole of the UK can be proud of.

I would love to read your views on the issues raised in this Blog post, so please leave your comments below.
Also, by subscribing to our RSS feed you can keep up-to-date with what everyone is saying about this thought-provoking topic as the campaign gathers momentum.

Thanks for reading – Paul

What is the WALK AGAINST CRIME ?

WALK AGAINST CRIME will take place in 2013 and will involve a sponsored walk from Lands End to John O’Groats to support a community project in Nairobi, Kenya which gets street kids off the streets and away from crime.

With a crime rate of 80% until recently, Mathare, Nairobi’s second largest slum has no work for adults, or schooling for youngsters. With nothing to do except hang around street corners, most young people get involved in theft, drugs and prostitution, usually around the age of 13 or 14.
Murder is common and HIV/AIDS is rampant. It can be a scary place.

However, a fantastic project has been set up by local people to change all this. Its aim is to engage the youth in activities, provide work and train them to earn for themselves, rehabilitate drug users, prostitutes and criminals and encourage young people to take a full part in society.
Already, with community policing by ex-gangsters, they claim to have reduced the crime rate from 80% to just 5%.

A jewellery workshop employs about 20 teenagers and young adults, and in a local field, football training takes place every day.
Nearby, dance sessions and training in acrobatics are held daily in a community centre. Many other activities are planned. The dancing is technically imperfect – but the teenagers are so full of enthusiasm that they are absolutely enthralling.

These are street kids who have never travelled, but their lives have already been massively changed by having something positive to do. When Jeremy Piercy (Shared Earth UK) and Kathleen Hanlon (Zuri Design) promised to organise a tour of Britain for them in summer 2013, they could not believe it.

To raise funds for this tour, Jeremy and Kathleen will be taking time off work to “walk the walk”. Joining them will be ex-street child Milton Obote, now manager of the jewellery workshop in Mathare. A ‘rehabilitated gangster’, he came out of crime after his four best friends had all been killed. He will be walking with Jeremy and Kathleen across Britain, telling his story on the way.
John Mucheru, a community leader in the slum, also hopes to walk for 600 miles.
Would you fancy joining them, or supporting the event in another way?

The organisers are looking for people from every section of society. Get in touch if you’d like to join us on the WALK AGAINST CRIME, even for just a day!

We’re also looking for people who are in the media and people with marketing skills. We want to ensure the tour next July is a real success. We’re already getting some good articles and interviews in the local media.
Can you help promote us?

Thousands of leaflets and posters have now been printed about WALK AGAINST CRIME. Help to promote us – phone 01904 655314 for free copies.

NEWS UPDATE – the amount pledged so far has risen to £7,160 (July 2011) Thanks to everyone.

Look out for updates on the progress of this event on our Blog.
In fact, why not subscribe to our Blog`s RSS feed to keep fully up-to-speed?
And we would love to read your thoughts on this initiative – please leave your comments below….
Paul at THE FAIR TRADE STORE.

Are you celebrating Chocolate Week with something Divine and Fairtrade?

The UK`s biggest chocolate celebration in nearly here and it`s turning into a truly national event.
Running from Monday 11th October to Sunday 17th October 2010, Chocolate Week promises to be something to enjoy for the whole family.
However, why not turn the event into a celebration of Fairtrade chocolate and to help you do this we offer a range of delicious gifts from Divine. All tried and tested by us, so we are totally confident you won`t be disappointed!

In particular, our Divine whole brazil nuts covered in dark Fairtrade chocolate are proving to be real best-sellers and something you can`t readily buy in your high street or supermarkets.
So, why not treat yourself today and choose something Divine and Fairtrade?

PLEASE VISIT THE FAIR TRADE STORE`S ONLINE SHOP NOW.

Win a year`s supply of Fairtrade coffee at The Cafedirect Container House!

Sustainable design duo Wayne and Tilly Hemingway have got together with Cafedirect for this exciting project where you could win a year`s supply of Fairtrade coffee.
Watch this short video to find out where The Container House will be located around the country this summer.
In essence, it is a pop-up eco-home which will be offering festival-goers delicious complimentary gourmet coffee. It has been made from a converted shipping container and uses entirely sustainable materials.

Cafedirect are ethical pioneers and we certainly support their Fairtrade principles. Indeed, their Fairtrade San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate has always been a firm favourite with our customers.

PLEASE VISIT THE FAIR TRADE STORE`S ONLINE SHOP NOW.

Visit our Eco Store in support of World Environment Day

This year`s World Environment Day day falls on Saturday 5th June, 2010. A time to reflect on the world in which we live and the impact our lives have on it.
What does environmentally or eco-friendly mean?
How we live our life affects our environment. To us, being environmentally or eco friendly means not wasting precious resources and choosing goods and services considered to have a lower impact on the environment.

Our new Eco Store has been designed with these principles in mind.
Here at the THE FAIR TRADE STORE we are pretty eco conscious. Where possible, we Reduce, Re-use and Recycle in our warehouse and office. We care about the environment. As such, we use recycled or sustainably produced materials as much as possible and have carefully selected a range of products in our Eco Store that display many of these characteristics.

PLEASE VISIT OUR ECO STORE NOW

Earth Day 2010 – The Eco Store is launched

Today (22nd April) is Earth Day and we would like to welcome you to our new Eco Store, where you will find many great Fair Trade products which are Eco-friendly too! Everything from Bags, Purses, Jewellery and Stationery, to Household & Homeware products.

So what does environmentally or eco-friendly mean?
How we live our life affects our environment. To us, being environmentally or eco friendly means not wasting precious resources and choosing goods and services considered to have a lower impact on the environment.

The word “eco” comes from the ancient Greek word ‘oikos’ meaning house, or the Latin ‘oeco’ meaning household. Mostly used as a prefix, it is added to an existing word to create another word with new meaning, mostly related to ecology. For example, eco-system, eco-tourism, eco-label etc, suggesting that a product is less damaging to the environment.
Ecology is the study of the detrimental affects of modern civilization on the environment, with a view toward prevention or reversal through conservation.

Here at the THE FAIR TRADE STORE we are pretty eco conscious. Where possible, we Reduce, Re-use and Recycle in our warehouse and office. We care about the environment. As such, we use recycled or sustainably produced materials as much as possible carefully select a range of products that display many of these characteristics.

Have a great Earth Day.

WHY NOT VISIT THE ECO STORE NOW?

When is our next Fair Trade retail event in Merseyside?

THE FAIR TRADE STORE will be setting up its stall at Dobbies Garden World in Southport on Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th April 2010.
We will displaying a great range of new Fair Trade bags, accessories and jewellery.

About 50 stalls will be located in a large, covered marquee in the store`s free car park.
Entry is free too, from 9.30am to 5pm each day.

So why not come along and support local businesses offering something you simply can not get on the High Street or in the supermarket?
We look forward to seeing you there.

PLEASE VISIT THE FAIR TRADE STORE`S ONLINE SHOP NOW

Come and see our Fair Trade gifts

THE FAIR TRADE STORE will be selling their unique Fair Trade gifts this coming weekend at the very beautiful Old Christ Church, Waterloo, Merseyside.

On Friday 12th and Saturday 13th March, a wide range of traders will be setting up stalls hoping to attract customers looking for last-minute Mother`s Day gifts, including some gorgeous Fair Trade jewellery like the Whirlpool Bracelet shown here.
If you are local, try to pop along and say “hello” to us – you might just find that perfect ethical product!

VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP NOW