The One World Centre is hosting a Fairtrade banana farmer on his first visit to the Isle of Man this week. 

Nicholas Faisal is a smallholder from the south of St Lucia who grows bananas for export to the UK.  He will be touring six primary schools around the Island to talk about how bananas are grown, life in St Lucia and how Fairtrade helps producers in the Caribbean to earn a fair wage and develop their businesses for the future.

The visit follows the hugely successful first Fairtrade conference for primary school children earlier this month, which saw 70 children take part in Fairtrade activities at Tynwald offices in Douglas. 

One World Centre Director Rosemary Clarke says “Meeting Nicholas will be a great way for children to hear about how some people’s lives are very different from ours – and how Fairtrade can have such a positive impact for farmers and producers in other parts of the world.

“At the end of our conference the children were very keen to think about ideas of how their school could support Fairtrade Fortnight next year and we’re hoping Nicholas’ visit and hearing about Fairtrade in action will inspire them further.”