Two billion people – a third of the world’s population – still survive on less than £1.30 per day. This stark fact demands a humanitarian response. Supporting fair trade is such a response. Fair trade ensures that producers receive both a fair minimum price for their labour and a fair trade premium to help local communities. The aim is to create sustainable trading activity for these people and their communities. The purpose of the fair trade stall is to increase awareness of fair trade and also to sell good quality fair trade goods to help fight poverty through trade. St James has supported the fair trade stall as a practical response to address inequality in the world and as part of the steps it has taken to be a Fair Trade Parish.

Fair Trade at St James

The Fair Trade stall began in February 2007:

because of the belief that promoting fair trade is inherently the right thing to do and is a practical expression of the activities supported by the church.
as a response to the initiative taken by the Diocese in encouraging all parishes to become Fair Trade Parishes.

The fair trade stall runs each Sunday at the Barnabas Centre from about 10.00 until the start of the 10.30 service and again after the service at about 12.00 (depending on the length of the sermon).

A range of fair trade food, cards, crafts and jewellery is for sale, mainly sourced from Traidcraft, Created (part of Tear Fund), Tumi, a fair trade supplier of South American crafts, Siwok crafts which supplies crafts made by the Wichi Indians from the scrub forest of Northern Argentina and Shared Earth which was set up to help address the imbalance of wealth in the world.

The aim is to fight poverty by promoting fair trade.

The stall started and has been run on a voluntary basis since February 2007. So far about £20,000 worth of fair trade goods have been sold generating a surplus of about £3,000 (which has mainly been used to provide the stock for sale).

All surpluses are donated to the Mildmay Mission Hospital in support of their work in Uganda helping children with Aids.

Links:

Surpluses go to the Mildmay Mission Hospital: http://www.mildmay.org/

Products are sourced from:

Traidcraft: http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/

Tumi: http://www.tumi.co.uk/

Created (TearFund): http://www.tearfund.org/

Siwok Crafts: http://www.siwok.org.uk/

Shared Earth: http://www.sharedearth.co.uk/

The stall is run by Pam and Steve Robertson.

For further information please contact them at:

10 Bell Mead, Sawbridgeworth, Herts CM21 9ES