Ten minutes of Fairtrade coming your way

Fairtrade is an alternative approach to conventional trade.

It is a partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing rights of, marginalised producers and workers — especially in low-income regions.

By creating more awareness of international consumer power and offering Australians an opportunity to make real change it helps to give small farmers, plantation workers and piece workers a fair go.

Keiraview Uniting Church is one of several Uniting Churches that have been designated Fairtrade communities.

As part of our commitment to social justice we believe that producers in the Third World should receive a fair price for their products. Fairtrade also enables them to invest in their communities, gain knowledge and skills, and develop environmentally sustainable farming methods.

At Keiraview we have a Fairtrade stall at all of our gatherings on the last Sunday of the month.

We hope that by enabling people to buy Fairtrade products on a regular basis we are growing the Fairtrade market and helping the companies that make the products to get them onto the supermarket shelves.

For the past year I have had a commission with Keiraview, through the Order of St Stephen, to encourage the expression of youth spirituality in Wollongong by facilitating video and internet projects with a spiritual focus.

The results of one of our projects — a ten-minute DVD about Fairtrade — should arrive in your congregation this month.

The DVD explains what Fairtrade is and gives some insight into its transformative potential.

A diverse group of people came together at different points to make the resource happen.

It was financed by a number of groups, including the New South Wales Board of Mission’s Seed Fund Initiative, which helped Keiraview buy a video camera, and some Australian Fairtrade supplier companies, which provided money for sets and postproduction.

Our group was not limited to the Illawarra or to attendees of a Uniting Church congregation. However, there was a common concern for international trade justice.

Some of those who participated included refugees from Burma, teenagers from Keiraview Youth Group, a local composer, a graphic designer from Penrith, people from the university group Uniting Spiritually, Chinese international students, Physics and Engineering PHD students, a local school principal, the support group for the order of Saint Stephen and volunteers for Oxfam Australia.

With regular access to the church hall and a small budget to buy sets, we painted, purchased and printed three sets to represent the three most crucial stages in global trade, “production” (growing stuff), “retail” (selling stuff) and “sale” (buying stuff).

By showing a direct interaction between what is taken off a supermarket shelf and the immediate effect on the other side of the world, the DVD shows that consumers — anyone who buys stuff really — can control big business behaviour with our decisions.

The great thing about Fairtrade is that it gives us a choice.

To communicate this message we used talents in designing, acting, editing and cinematography.

We had people operating props, revising the script, doing voice over, providing technical support, picking things up, driving people around, catering, and coordinating use of space.

The collaborative nature of the project still awes me.

If you are interested in social justice or in film or video production I strongly encourage you to have a look at our DVD. Perhaps you can show it at a group meeting or even during a church service.

If your congregation has not yet received a copy of the DVD order one from http://keiraview.org/ or email me at thegreatyear@gmail.com.

In the meantime, look out for Fairtrade coffee, tea and chocolate at your local supermarket and buy it regularly. By buying Fairtrade products you can change the way that international trade works and you make a real difference to the lives of Third World farmers and communities.

Jesse Newman spent a year of service with Keiraview Uniting as part of the Order of Saint Stephen, a fellowship for those who want to serve God in a voluntary capacity. His living expenses and working resources were be covered by the congregation and a bequest.