Fairtrade For Woodbridge is a purely voluntary group of people who care about trade justice, and want to raise awareness of such issues in our town.  None of us receive any money for what we are doing, and even the Web site is being run by one of us for no charge.  Most of us live in Woodbridge, and those of us who don't, live in its vicinity and have a commitment to it.  We actively support Fairtrade and the general drive to make world trade laws fair and respectable, and we recognise what many people are unaware of - the fact that the way things are, people who produce some of our most favourite things are literally dying to do it.  Working in appalling conditions and often being paid less for their goods than they have cost them to produce, many people, especially in developing countries, are suffering terrible hardships while we casually buy and enjoy their goods without having a clue.

You can find out more about these issues on our About Fairtrade page, and by going to www.fairtrade.org.uk, but for more information on us, please read on.

Fairtrade For Woodbridge's main goal is to make Woodbridge a Fairtrade Town.  This is an official title awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation to towns, cities, villages or boroughs that have met certain criteria regarding the use and awareness of Fairtrade.  In short, it would mean getting more and more shops, cafés, restaurants and private businesses to stock and use Fairtrade products, such as chocolate, tea, coffee and many more.  It would also mean encouraging people to buy local produce direct from our farmers, who also often don't get truly fair prices for what they grow, but are dependant on unsympathetic market forces.

These are the five goals we will need to meet to become an official Fairtrade Town:

1. Local council passes a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and agrees to serve Fairtrade coffee and tea at its meetings and in its offices and canteens.
2. A range of (at least two) Fairtrade products are readily available in the area's shops.  Fairtrade products are served in local cafés/catering establishments. 
3. Fairtrade products are used by a number of local work places (estate agents, hairdressers etc) and community organisations (churches, schools etc) 
4. Attract media coverage and popular support for the campaign.  
5. A local Fairtrade steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fairtrade Town status.

To succeed in this, we need the support of the people of Woodbridge.  We are trying to raise awareness of Fairtrade and encourage people to think about what goes into making the things we buy, and realising that part of the responsibility lies with us as consumers.  

There are many common misunderstandings about what Fairtrade actually is, and how it works.  Similarly, we have found already that many people assume things about us and our campaign which are not in fact correct.  To help you get a clearer picture of what we are, and what we are not, here is a simple list for you:
 

What we are:

• local people who care about fair trade 
• committed to Woodbridge 
• willing to 'practice what we preach' - we actually buy Fairtrade products ourselves!

What we are not:

• A registered charity (although the Fairtrade Foundation is) 
• Out to raise money for the Fairtrade Foundation or people in developing countries - the only fundraising we may do is to cover our costs of promoting fair trade 
• Traders ourselves - we stand to gain no benefit whatsoever from the sale of any fairly traded goods in Woodbridge or elsewhere 
• A religious group.  Some of our members come from local churches, but even more are not.  Fairtrade itself is not a religious organisation either

While as a group this is the case, one of our members is a Traidcraft representative, and another two run local shops which already stock Fairtrade goods.  Even so, they are part of the group because of their passion for fair trade, and not for their own gain.  In fact, campaigning to make fairly traded products available in more and more shops in Woodbridge will be giving them commercial competition!

If you have any comments or would like to ask us anything else about our campaign, we would be delighted to hear from you.  You can email us at info@fairtradeforwoodbridge.org.uk.  At the moment we don't have a postal address, but we are hoping to sort one out soon.

Thank you for reading and paying an interest in this very important campaign.  Now that you have read about us, you may like to read more about the issues of trade justice and Fairtrade.  If so, please go to our About Fairtrade page, or the Fairtrade Foundation's Web site.

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