There is so much to tell all of our Koolskools friends and supporters about our Fairtrade Fortnight activities that we thought we would indulge ourselves in another blog about it!
Two of the many schools that we received a very warm welcome at during Fairtrade Fortnight were St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Bodmin, Cornwall, and Fulston Manor Secondary School, Sittingbourne, Kent. Both are Fairtrade schools, and both exuded palpable enthusiasm for Fairtrade and how it works.
Take St Mary’s, Bodmin, for example. Andy did a half hour presentation to the students about Fairtrade cotton and the Koolskools project and it was clear from the very first minute that their knowledge of Fairtrade was exceptional, definitely exceeding levels of Fairtrade knowledge that we come across in the average secondary school! But not only that, the school and students have become real advocates for Fairtrade in their area. We are pleased to say that just before Fairtrade fortnight they bought some Koolskools Fairtrade cotton polos, logoed them up with the popular “We are a Fairtrade school” symbol, and went to the other schools in the area spreading the Fairtrade message. Add to that the £200 they raised during FTF for Traidcraft and you end up thinking to yourself “What a Fairtrade School”!!
These are the same feelings that Andy took away with him later that week from Fulston Manor Secondary School, Sittingborne, Kent. It was a thoroughly rewarding day spent offering 4 1 hour+ classes to year 7 and 8 groups. The empathetic response of the students was inspiring when Koolskools showed them a recent news clip of the wave of suicides of Indian cotton farmers that has spread across India over the past decade and a half due to low cotton prices – 250,000 in 16 years, the largest wave of suicides in history. The FM students’ capacity for understanding the issue, and their compassion was one of the most striking memories that Andy took away from this year’s Fairtrade fortnight.