Vidyashilp Academy celebrated the Fairtrade week with an array of activities to help raise awareness about trade practices that affects the daily choices in life. Being the first Fairtrade school in India, the school joins a huge network of schools internationally.

Becoming a Fairtrade certified school is a long process which requires bringing together groups of students, educators and parents who form the steering committee along with other knowledgeable members from the community to ensure that the school practices & activities are influenced. The Fairtrade week is an important time set aside on the school calendar to enlighten students and parents in the hope that they will take the message forward and adopt these practices in their own lives. As a school, Vidyashilp Academy has made commitments to India’s farmers by becoming ambassadors of the movement, by taking the idea of Fairtrade to their communities.

In India, Fairtrade works mainly with the farming community in raising awareness and in impacting fairer prices, terms of trade, safe working conditions and local sustainability for farmers and workers in the developing world.

The week was observed with a packed schedule, with a visit to a farm that functions on the concepts of Fairtrade, various in-house activities and a special assembly on the objectives of Fairtrade were also conducted. As an ongoing classroom engagement over the year, the students also put together Fairtrade posters and creative slogans reaffirming their pledge to the movement. A friendly football match was also organised using certified Fairtrade footballs.

Looking back at the year gone by, Ms. Kalai Selvi, Head of the School, Vidyashilp Academy said, “The second year of Fairtrade week celebration at our school is indeed offering moments of absolute delight. Our children recognize the importance of considered choices; they understand and value the role of the farmer in their lives. They are sensitive to the fact that if they don’t take small steps to minimize exploitation, the cost will be too high for them to pay later. Shilpites are learning to be fair. They are showing their sensitivity in action by asking the right questions and thinking twice as a consumer.”