COUNCIL CHAIR HOSTS FAIR TRADE VISIT

Two African schoolteachers have visited the Chair of Carmarthenshire County Council during a trip to Wales.

Chiku Gama from Malawi and Clement Appiah from Ghana have spent a week at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen as part of a British Council project.

They visited the Chairman’s Room, along with staff and pupils from the school, as guests of Chairman Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths.

Carmarthenshire has been awarded Fair Trade status three times in a row. The county has been recognised for its continued support in promoting the use and availability of Fair Trade products. The local authority uses Fair Trade tea and coffee as much as possible and promotes Fair Trade at staff facilities. There is also extensive work with schools across the county, to assist them in reaching Fair Trade Schools Status.

A large number of local shops, cafes, and restaurants including Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Marks and Spencer and Lidl now stock Fair Trade goods. For two weeks every year communities across Wales and the UK celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight in a bid to raise awareness and the sale of products.

Fair Trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

Cllr Hughes Griffiths said that the county had been promoting Fair Trade for some years and the movement was growing, especially in the towns but also some villages.

Mr Gama said that the problem for farmers in Africa was getting their produce to the cities because of poor roads but the Government was acting to provide roads to the farms.

“The price farmers get depends on where the produce is sold. If it is sold in the village the farmers will not get much money but if it is transported to the cities the prices are higher,” he said.

Cllr Tom Defis, Chair of the Carmarthenshire Fair Trade Forum, said: “We promote Fair Trade chocolate and the cocoa beans come from Ghana. We are also working on an appeal with the Baptist Union of Wales raising money for Ghana.”

Assistant headteacher Ann James said: “We have done this project with the British Council promoting links with a school in Malawi and a school in Ghana. The children benefit from contact with children from countries very different from Wales and yet with some things the same as children are children across the world.

“We have the two teachers over now and one of our teachers Daniella Christofaro visited Ghana last November.”

Daniella Christofaro said: “I went to a Church school and I thought the experience was fantastic. They took me to see a cocoa farm which was an eye opener.”