Fair trade is very relevant to today and everyone in North America either eats or drinks something that could be bought with Fair trade certification. About 80 percent of people consume some form of chocolate each day and chocolate is the worst thing for child labour in the world. We can’t stand around and just say this is not good; something must be done; and so our campaign began two weeks ago. We plastered campus with questions, provoking discussion about who produces the goods that we buy and their rights; making the analogy that it could just as well be our little sister or brother up in that tree picking cocoa pods to make our chocolate. Following that up, a couple of days after, we put little facts, stats, and questions on the desks in the big auditorium (Wu centre) so that when you pulled up the desk it caught your eye. We also put a ½ pager of questions in the napkin dispensers in meal hall so that people saw them when they ate.
We decided to base our campaign around Easter, raising awareness of the human rights abuses associated with chocolate in particular and then trying to get them to make different choices over Easter and not buy unfairly traded chocolate even though it may be shaped like a bunny or wrapped in a pink and purple paper. Aside from the numerous posters we made talking about having a “Fair trade Easter”… We held a “Fairly Traded Chocolate Easter event” on the morning of Easter Sunday. We booked the whole first floor of the Dunn (Math and Physics) building and then took over the place. The child (which went in the tree by the student centre for Monday and Tuesday) was set up on the window sill with the poster predominantly displayed above it for all to see as they entered. All of the fair trade questions were still up on the walls and we supplemented them with some Easter balloons and woven coloured paper. We had an “Easter hunt” where people searched for cocoa camino minis as well as some different Fair trade facts. The fair trade facts were also written on all of the white boards so you saw them and could use them to spark conversation wherever you went. We also made Easter bread and had it set up with butter, juice, and tea for people to eat. Children from the community, MtA students and even faculty came out, searched for chocolate and stood around and discussed the lives of the people who produce our chocolate. Fair trade is forever current and everyone should know about the rights that are being violated as people produce the goods that we buy and eat.
