Life isn't fair!

I hear people (especially my son) whinge all the time that "life isn't fair"! Well guess what, it isn't! We live in a world where some people struggle just to get enough food to eat in a day, where access to basic things we take for granted like clean water, healthcare, and education are out of reach, and no that isn't fair. But life doesn't have to stay that way, we can make a difference, we can help make things fairer! It is fairtrade fortnight and today I hosted a 'fair cuppa' to share my passion for fair trade with some of my friends and family who wanted to learn more! I whipped up this chocolate brownie fudge cake for the occasion using fair trade cocoa and fair trade chocloate and let me say it was YUMMY, and there is none left!

I brewed up some fair trade coffee.

I set out a selection of fair trade teas, fair trade drinking chocolate and some fair trade instant coffee as well.

I put out some other yummy morning tea.. dip, cheeses and homemade scones.

And some fair trade choccies.

I put out some brochures and info and put some posters up around the room.

I also put out a donation jar and a birthing kit. What do they have to do with fair trade? Well it's all about giving people the best chance in life and and the best place to start that is right at the beginning! I am attending a birthing kit assembly day next week to see how it all works and a friend and I want to organsie one ourselves which is what the money is going towards, there was $48 put in this jar today. :-)

So back to fair trade. We enjoyed our fair trade drinks and yummy morning tea.

Then we watched some DVD clips about fair trade coffee and chocolate and I read out some information. We chatted about fair trade and people asked questions and hopefully they left knowing a lot more about how making some simple swaps in their shopping can help lift people out of poverty!

So what is fair trade all about? It's about making the system fairer for those who are the most vulnerable, the farmers and producers of some of the things that we in the Western world consume in massive quantities, like tea, coffee and chocloate. It's about ensuring that these people are paid decent wages, not exploited, that they have good working conditions and are not trafficked or their children forced to work, it's about being an ethical consumer. But even more than that fair trade differs from other similar programs in that it includes 'the fairtrade premium' which is an extra amount invested into these communities. It is not just a handout, it is a tool of empowerment. The farmers themselves are a part of this process, they make the decisions together of how to invest these funds and what they have invested in are the basic things we take for granted, schools for their kids, medical clinics, water, etc. By being given a chance to be a part of the production chain without being exploited they are given the opportunity to provide a future for their children and that is something I am passionate about investing in!! The slogan for fair trade fortnight this year is "show off your swap", I have swapped our tea, coffee and chocolate for fair trade and am learning more about other products I can swap too. What will you swap to help make life fair!