Poverty
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We can make a difference to global poverty
1.4 billion people worldwide live on less than £1 a day, unable to feed their families and send their children to school.
What’s the problem?
One reason that people are still living in poverty is because the things we buy everyday are almost always made in poor countries by people who are paid terrible wages and forced to work in appalling conditions.
Trade could help lift these people out of poverty, but the rich and powerful are pursuing trade policies that put profits before the needs of people and the planet.
Cotton farmers in poor countries are facing particularly hard times. They are struggling to compete, because the governments of rich countries support their farmers to grow tonnes of bargain cotton. They find it hard to sell their cotton with this unfair competition, and so take their children out of school to help them earn enough to live.
What’s the solution?
Fairtrade is one solution to this. Fairtrade farming gives poor farmers the chance to get a decent wage for their produce so they can afford to feed their families, get health care and send their children to school. Fairtrade guarantees better prices, decent working conditions and environmental standards, enabling producers to improve their lives.
Join the Wear Fair campaign
It might seem like our lives are too different and too distant to make a positive difference to those living in poverty. But we, the consumers, can demand a change in the way our clothes are produced.
Our schools and colleges spend billions every year on cotton clothes, whether it’s sports kit, school shirts or leavers’ hoodies. But usually these garments are not made with Fairtrade cotton, and may have been produced by children, or by women barely older than you, for as little as 5p per hour for 80 hours each week.
We know that young people don’t want their schools and colleges to buy clothes that make poor producers suffer. With your help we can create a national movement in schools and colleges, calling on them to source clothing which will improve the lives of millions of cotton farmers.
