Parents in Dorset are being targeted in a new Fair Trade campaign which encourages them not to buy cheap products for their children.
Parkstone Christian Centre hosted a Fair Trade event on Tuesday to teach parents and children about how cheap products are made by cheap labour.
The Centre, in Commercial Road, staged a play called Surya’s Story which introduces the concept of global fair trade.
Sharon Muiruri, the author of “Surya’s Story,” said: “Children identify the cause of fair trade, and we want parents to understand that there are other children in the other part of the world who work hard to produce some cheap products to export them to us, but in the mean time they do not get a fair rate.”
“We use the theatre as a tool, in this case we make the football as a hook to engage the story, when we explain that children in India make footballs for children to play with, without the knowledge that suffering is hiding behind the making of these balls.”
The play narrates a story of a lost girl called Surya, who escapes from her employer after he hit her.
The play ends by highlighting the fact that children are suffering with the unfair trade for the benefit of traders and consumers.
Mark Phillips, from the Parkstone Christian Centres , said: “We may not have fair trade for every single product in the UK, but it is essential to clarify for children and their parents that seeking cheap prices for all products in the current financial situation won’t help poor labourers and farmers in this globalised economy.”
Gwyn Jones, the Chairman of Poole Fair Town Initiative, said: “ The issue of Fair Trade could be defined as a fair day’s money for fair day’s work.”
The campaign encourages families to buy more Fair Trade products to guarantee that poor people receive their fair rate.
