Crosstalk extra: Fairtrade Fortnight

Vijoya Kumari, a tea plucker in South India highlights the difference Fairtrade makes on her estate. "My parents couldn't afford to let me study beyond the age of 14... Nowadays girls should study." Vijaya has been able to educate her two daughters: each child received funding for their education from the age of six, an amount that increased all the way up to college. Vijaya has had the satisfaction of seeing one daughter become an engineer and the other a nurse.

At the same plantation, Ms Umawathi has an equally positive story to tell. With support from Fairtrade Premium, her husband underwent an important eye operation, and the tea estate now offers a regular eye clinic to its workers, their families, and surrounding communities, providing glasses to those who need them, and diagnosing any medical issues.

Education and health have long been on the agenda for spending the Fairtrade Premium; but today there is another, increasingly important role for Fairtrade. Often, formerly reliable seasonal rainfall has given way to extended drought or raging flood; crops are failing, flocks dying, and new crop diseases gaining ground. Fairtrade is working hard to find ways of mitigating these results of climate change, through reforestation, diversifying crops, and spreading best practice.

Using the Fairtrade Premium, Mr Murugaraj, a supervisor on another estate has developed a reforestation project to protect the environment. "We've bought and planted trees... we are creating more forest... we protect these areas and safeguard the water sources."

Fairtrade is playing a vital part in helping to counter global warming: please support their work by buying Fairtrade goods. Look for the Fairtrade stall next time you're in Shrewsbury Indoor Market.

Authors - Meriel and Ken Chippindale

Submitted by D Onions, Churches Together in Shrewsbury