This week, our group learned about fairtrade.
They started by having a look at some classic fairtrade items - like coffee, bananas, chocolate. After finding the fairtrade symbol on each of the items, they had a discussion of what it meant to be fairtrade, and why it was important.
Next, they started putting their conversation into practice, using bananas. They learned about all the different people involved in getting bananas to supermarkets - from the workers cultivating the bananas to the people who stock the shelves. They discussed how the profits of a single banana might be split between all the different stakeholders. After that particularly lively discussion, they learned how it typically gets split up in reality. They discussed fairness - how does fairtrade help? What do they think of all of that?
Finally, they played the chocolate game, a fun and chaotic ending to a complex discussion and an interesting session.