In class 2, we have been looking closely to find out ‘What is Fairtrade?’ and ‘Why do we have Fairtrade?’ As it is ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ we have been doing little activities to help us learn about Fairtrade.
Introduction to Fairtrade
We were shown the logo on the board and were asked to discuss what we thought this was. Some of our class were very quick to realise this was the ‘Fairtrade’ logo. We discussed the word ‘fair’ and what it means to us in our life.
We then discussed what the word ‘trade’ means and we came up with lots of things we might trade such as; goes on the tablets, money for sweets and a thank you when we get something nice. This helped us gain a better understanding of what ‘Fairtrade’ means.
Comparisons of items sold
With a big part of ‘Fairtrade’ being how much people buy and sell food for, we created a little role play scenario. The farmer worked hard, day and night growing his bunches of bananas and he managed to sell them for 2 cubes a bunch to a powerful man. This man went and sold the same bunch for 5 cubes. How was that fair? Asked Class 2. There was another farmer working hard growing coffee beans and he sold a big bag for 3 cubes. But the same bag of coffee was sold for 6 cubes. How was this fair? Asked Class 2. This showed us what happens around our world and why ‘Fairtrade’ was created.
Comparison of spending
We really enjoyed the role play to help us see why we have Fairtrade, so we did some more. We saw the ‘powerful man’ come back with his 40 cubes, where he bought a huge house, posh car, a fantastic school for his kids and he was able to pay for good health and he still had lots of money left. But simultaneously, the hardworking farmer had to pay for the same things, a house (which looked more like a hut), his kids to go to an unclean school and finally he got ill so he needed to pay for the hospital. Unfortunately, he did not have enough money. We didn’t think this was ‘fair’ that the hardworking man couldn’t afford to get well. We think he should be paid fairly.
Fairtrade or Not Fair trade
We were shown some foods that might be Fairtrade. We looked closely at the packaging to see if we could see the logo. Because we couldn’t, we knew not all the foods we buy are Fairtrade. People do this because they are cheaper. We organised lots of food items into our tree map. We recognised that some items were the same, with some being Fairtrade but others weren’t. We thought we should help the farmers by buying the ‘Fairtrade’ option instead of the cheapest so we can be kind.
A Fairtrade adventure
To help us see why we should help the workers in other countries, we watched the ‘Samuel’s Fairtrade Story’ which is a short film about the life of Samuel Maina, a Fairtrade coffee farmer in the Kangema district of Kenya. Samuel showed us around his farm and talked about his life. After watching this, we think he deserves to be happy just like us and that we would like to do lots more to help him. We are grateful for ‘Fairtrade’.
A child said, “I think people can be really greedy.” Another said, “We should pay the farmers more to make it fair.”
