On Friday 9 March, the Manx language Primary School Bunscoill Ghaelgagh in St Johns had a visit from Massatoma Mounkoro as part of their prize for winning the Fair Trade Fortnight Bunting Competition arranged by the One World Centre. Massatoma is a cotton farmer from Mali and has worked with other farmers in his area with Fair Trade for the past six years and talked about the difference that has made to his community.

The whole school took part in this project. The school had an assembly about Fair Trade at the beginning of the fortnight and each class had at least one lesson to further their understanding as well as the session of painting. There were also talks about the footsteps that we can all make to help Fair Trade and this idea is incorporated in the school bunting, some classes used the Internet to find out more when they were researching for their designs.

Pupils also looked at the Oxfam lesson ‘it’s just not fair’ and learnt about trade in different parts of the world and how many don’t get a fair price for their hard work. They enjoyed the role playing and found out just how unfair it is for some in reality, as some of the groups were paid less and had fewer tools. Some children got quite upset when they realised just how difficult it is for some farmers.

Massatoma spoke in French which was translated by Ed who was also visiting from Fair Trade. Some of the children also tried out some French when answering his questions. The school used Fair Trade cotton when making their bunting and now hopes the children will be inspired to make those steps to help farmers and workers in other countries by buying Fair Trade when they have the choice.