Bristol’s Outstanding Achievement recognised

by Jenny Foster, Bristol Fairtrade Network

I felt great pride standing on a stage with other Bristol campaigners this weekend at the annual Fairtrade Supporter Conference in Birmingham, and receiving the Fairtrade Fortnight Award for Outstanding Achievement.

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight in Bristol was an exciting and vibrant time that involved more people and organisations than ever before. Bristol campaigners built major partnerships with local and national organisations, actively reaching new and enormous audiences. Highlights included a fashion show in the middle of a busy shopping centre, Fairtrade Fiesta featuring local young rappers, and visit from a Nicaraguan Fairtrade coffee producer.

Nearly 5,000 people were involved directly in events and competitions, with over 1.5 million more hearing about events through the media and social networking. We had an exciting array of partners from the Bishop of Bristol, who hosted civic leaders at a Fairtrade event at the Bishops’ Palace and pledged to make the Diocese a Fairtrade one, through to rap artists from Knowle West media centre who performed at our two major events; the Fairwear Fashion Show and the Fairtrade Fiesta.

Our key aim this year was to involve as many parts of the City as possible in Fairtrade Fortnight and reach new audiences. So we staged the Fairwear Fashion Show in the shopping mall in the city centre to attract regular Saturday shoppers, many of whom stopped to watch and hear more about Fairtrade cotton, who would never have made the effort to come to a Fairtrade event. Over 1,500 people saw the three shows and we had media coverage in 17 different publications and websites.

It was brilliant to co-host events with Ujima Radio representing the African Caribbean community in Bristol and with Women in Property, representing local businesswomen in the City. It was inspiring to hear Jitzy Centano, a Fairtrade coffee producer from Nicaragua, in Bristol for the Fortnight, talk so eloquently about the difference Fairtrade makes to her and her community, particularly in empowering women and giving them opportunities to earn money and develop in business.

Local schools were involved in making bunting, nine schools had a visit from Jitzy and seven schools entered our poster competition. Fashion and media students from the University of the West of England played a key part in the Fairwear Fashion Show and University of Bristol students volunteered at events.
We received sponsorship and support in kind to cover the cost of all our events from the Mall shopping centre, local businesses, Diocese of Bristol and the Co-operative Group.

We hope to reinvest our prize of £700 kindly donated by The Co-operative Group to next year’s Fortnight campaign.

For more information on Bristol’s Fortnight, visit www.bristolfairtrade.org.uk

The Fairtrade Fortnight Awards recognise the amazing creativity, effort and impact of campaign groups who bring Fairtrade Fortnight to life each year in communities across the UK. 2011 saw more entries, and more difficult decisions for the judges than ever before.