Impact!
‘Learning from Each Other’ – since 1994
Fair trade activism has been built into the life of Shimna from the beginning. Fair Trade has its place in the curriculum, led from the front by the geography department.
Every year during Fair Trade Fortnight, Suzi Mawhirt would organise Fair Trade assemblies led by geography students who had studied the issues in class. The best of their classwork created our Fair Trade Fortnight displays. Inspired by the geography department, as we made our way up the chain of the Fair Trade Award scheme, every department got involved and Jacqui Conn coordinated our bids for each Award.
Fair Trade in practice meant that Ellen kept the staffroom stocked with fairly traded coffee, tea, sugar and biscuits, funded through an honesty box. Students checked and topped up supplies as necessary. The profits went to the Habitat travel fund for students heading off to build in Ethiopia, India or Romania.
After healthy eating initiatives had removed vending machines from the school, the occasional fairly traded sweetie stall was all the more appreciated. The Prince’s Trust group organised a Christmas Fair every year, and made a point of including a Fair Trade stall which always did a great trade in hand made gifts for Christmas. The Prince’s Trust also took their Fair Trade staff to St George’s Market in Belfast as part of their enterprise programme.
Zoe and Rachel led a drive to include local businesses in our Fair Trade drive, visiting cafes and shops to encourage proprietors to stick fairly traded goods.
The Public Services group were glad of fairly traded chocolate emergency rations on their expeditions.
Sports Day matches were played with fairly traded footballs.
Campaigning was part of the action, and letters were written encouraging manufacturers to use fairly traded ingredients. Politicians were lobbied and at every opportunity in school life, examples of fairly traded goods were produced!
OldScholar Patrick Brown returned to Shimna during his university degree to involve students in a fair trade project he was working on with a womens’ craft cooperative in Uganda. The cooperative was provided with the technology to create a range of jewellery, purses and textiles. 50% of the profits from the cooperative went to fund WaterMade, implementing clean water projects across Africa. Patrick presented the project in assembly, and the A level business studies class were in full support. The Prince’s Trust also found they had a new source of gifts for their Christmas stall.
Students worked their way through the FairAware Award, the FairActive Award and were finally presented with the top FairAchiever Award.
In achieving the top award, Shimna had adopted a Fair Trade policy, sourced fairly traded coffee, tea, sugar and biscuits for the staffroom and for hospitality at Parent Consultation Evenings. Every subject area was involved in letter writing, researching the issues, tackling fair trade economics problems in maths, cooking with fairly traded ingredients etc. Parents got involved, for example the wonderful mug cosies knitted as fundraisers by Theresa. Presentation day was a celebration for the whole school.
