Renfrewshire Fairtrade achievements and highlights

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In 2007, Renfrewshire Council passed a resolution to enhance the council's commitment to Fairtrade following from the success of Paisley becoming a Fairtrade Town in 2003 and Bishopton a Fairtrade Village in 2007. Since then, Renfrewshire has achieved Fairtrade Zone status and Lochwinnoch is now a Fairtrade village. All this has been achieved through a lot of hard work by volunteers and organisations who donated their time to campaigning.

During Fairtrade Fortnight, the steering group ran a Fairtrade Roadshow which visited venues across Renfrewshire including Glasgow Airport, Braehead shopping centre, Renfrew Sports Centre, Castle Semple Visitor Centre and the University of the West of Scotland. Members of the steering group were on hand manning a stall giving out samples of Fairtrade products and information on Fairtrade.

Also during Fairtrade Fortnight, nurseries and schools organised events and activities such as stalls, class information sessions, Fairtrade assemblies, Fairtrade recipes and Fairtrade snakes and ladders. Renfrewshire Fairtrade Zone Campaign won the Faitrade Foundation's 'Outstanding Achievement' award for 2008. To be picked as the best campaign across the whole of the UK was a great achievement and award judges commented that the campaign 'excels in all areas - an integrated, well-planned and creative campaign that reached lots of people, engaged the media and communicated the Fairtrade message imaginatively'.

This summer, we also attended local gala days throughout Renfrewshire to explain what Fairtrade is and encourage people to take part in the campaign across Renfrewshire.

Councillor Lawson, chairperson of the Fairtrade Steering Group, said "This has been a great year for our Fairtrade campaign with Renfrewshire and Lochwinnoch both achieving Fairtrade status at the start of the year, through to Houston Primary becoming our first official Fairtrade primary in November 2009. Let's all keep up this hard work throughout 2010 and make it another fantastic year for Fairtrade in Renfrewshire".

So please continue to buy Fairtrade goods and support the campaign and help some of the poorest people to improve their own lives.