Wednesday 9th April 2008
In Ewelme, Oxfordshire, the church, school and wider community are tackling the injustice of unfair trading – all led by 10 year old Mary Spence.
As chair of the Fair Trade Committee at Ewelme CE County Primary School, Mary was inspired to take the campaign further by involving her local church, and has now set her sights on persuading the whole village to become a Fair Trade Village.
Head teacher, Andrew Markham, said: ‘It has been a wonderful experience of the power of the church and the community working together to make a difference.
‘The school and St Mary the Virgin Church are physically connected, being on the same site, and a close bond has traditionally existed between the two. But I think the Fair Trade issue has united us even further, knowing that our combined actions here in Ewelme can have so much effect on the lives of others across the world. Now, we really hope the whole village will get behind the campaign.’
As a regular member of St Mary’s Church, Mary joined fellow pupils on Mothering Sunday in the school’s regular presentation to the congregation about their activities. As well as telling the congregation about the background to the campaign, she then organized a tasting session of fairly traded products.
Such was the success of the venture that the PCC has now agreed for St Mary’s to become a Fair Trade Church, using fairly traded tea, coffee, biscuits and other products for after-service refreshments and other events.
Church and school are also now united in their commitment to help persuade the whole village to use fairly traded products.