Every cuppa helps people like Rosa

Improving lives: Fairtrade in action at Crompton House School. From left, Juliana Correa (interpreter), Rosa, Paul Douglas (head of geography and Fairtrade co-ordinator), Fairtrade group pupils Joshua Smith, Laura Heap and Rachael Withnell

PUPILS at Crompton House School toasted Fairtrade fortnight by welcoming a guest all the way from Colombia.

The school, which recently become the first Fairtrade school in the borough, welcomed Rosa Helena Lopez de Soto, a coffee farmer for The Co-operative which has benefited from Fairtrade and which brought her from her village for a UK tour to promote the cause.

Rosa grows her coffee beans in the remote heights of the Andes, and the farm co-operative for which she is a part, is renowned for supplying some of the highest quality coffee in the world.

Rosa got the chance to see some of the school’s Fairtrade initiatives in action, which include selling Fairtrade fruit juices in school vending machines and have seen school cooks producing desserts throughout fairtrade fortnight which use only fairtrade ingredients.

The students are also raffling a hamper full of fairtrade goodies and are looking into adopting a fairtrade school PE kit.

The pupils learned about the massive benefits that Rosa and her family have enjoyed since a Fairtrade co-operative was adopted in their town of Aguadas.

Paul Douglas, head of geography and Fairtrade co-ordinator at Crompton House, said: “As part of our commitment to Fairtrade, we have a group within school who meet once a month to discuss ways to increase the amount of work we do and we’re currently trying to incorporate a topic on Fairtrade into every subject area.

“Fairtrade improves the lives of the world’s poorest people, so we’re really committed to the cause.”