Renfrewshire residents looking to find out more about Fairtrade and how to get involved in local campaigns are invited to a special event this weekend.
As part of Fairtrade Fortnight (Feb 22 – March 7) a special Fairtrade Tea Party is being held on Saturday 27 February in Paisley Town Hall.
The event will include a talk by Haitham Hasasneh, a livelihood development officer in the occupied Palestinian Territory working for Oxfam.
Haitham is a Palestinian agronomist with 20 years experience. His role is focused on increasing the quantity and quality of olive oil produced for markets and developing good cooperative governance and management by and for the farmers. He also focuses on promoting access of small scale farmers to international fair trade markets and producers like those in Scotland.
The Tea Party is also an opportunity for people to find out more about Fairtrade in their town or village and how to set up a local Fairtrade group. Members of Lochwinnoch, Bishopton and Erskine’s local Fairtrade groups will be on hand to give information and advice.
There will also be representatives of the Renfrewshire Fairtrade Steering Group, who have lead the campaign to make Renfrewshire a Fairtrade zone.
Councillor Brian Lawson, chair of the Renfrewshire Fairtrade Steering Group, said: “This event is open to everyone and is a good way to encourage people to hear about Fairtrade. However we are also specifically appealing to people who may have thought about getting involved in supporting Fairtrade in Renfrewshire but are not sure how to do this. We are really pleased to welcome Haitham to Renfrewshire and I am really interested to hear more about his Fairtrade work.
“On the day we will also be encouraging people to sign up to Renfrewshire’s I Swap Campaign running throughout Fairtrade Fortnight. We are aiming to get as many people as possible to sign a pledge to swap one of their regular shopping items for a Fairtrade version.”
The Fairtrade Tea Party starts at 10am in the Alexander Wilson Suite in Paisley Town Hall.