Fairtrade in Guisborough

Churches Together in Guisborough united tonight at St Paulinus' church to celebrate Harvest Festival, and to thank God for the work done by people across the world to produce all the things we need and those which make life more pleasant and enjoyable for us.  As part of the evening I was asked to talk about the impact of Fairtrade on the lives of the producers.  I don't think I've ever had such an easy talk to prepare - given all the resources of the Traidcraft Speaker network and the personal experience of meeting and talking with a cashew nut producer last year. Talking about the choice facing Juan Luiz and his colleagues of whether to buy nutcrackers or send their children on to college education I could have heard a pin drop.  Describing the life of a pineapple plantation labourer in Costa Rica working for the big producers was easy after reading so much about it this week.  Afterwards the wonderful people of Guisborough gave very generously to Traidcraft Exchange to help with the work of developing more Fairtrade products and producers.  Some of them also talked about what they already do to support Fairtrade - Guisborough was the first Fairtrade town in the area.  It sounded to me tonight as though there's still a great deal of support there.