Gosport Fairtrade Action

The Borough of Gosport is a Fairtrade Community

In 2018 we celebrated 10 years as a Fairtrade Borough.

      

Who are we?

We are Gosport Fairtrade Action (GFA), a group of volunteers, who since 2006 have been organising activities to promote Fairtrade in Gosport. Our members include representatives from a range of voluntary organisations, schools, youth organisations, businesses, religious groups, various political parties, and include some local councillors. We work closely with Gosport Borough Council to meet the goals needed to achieve Fairtrade Borough Status. We did this first in January 2008 and have renewed that status regularly since.

Our most recent renewal of Fairtrade status was in August 2023 and we are due to apply again in 2026

  Our aims

We want everyone to know that by choosing Fairtrade products they can change peoples lives and tackle the the climate crisis. Because Fairtrade enables producers to earn a living income, meet the needs of their families and build thriving communities. Once they can meet these basic needs they can address the challenges of the climate crisis.

So we want to increase awareness of Fairtrade, encourage more people and organisations to use Fairtrade goods, and more retailers and catering establishments to sell them. We seek to promote Fairtrade in community organisations and workplaces of the borough.

We are committed to raising the awareness of our fellow community members that every pound we spend is a powerful decision, with ramifications that echo across continents, countries, and communities. When we choose Fairtrade products, good things happen:

• producers can earn enough from Fairtrade prices to provide for their families,
• they can use the Fairtrade Premium to improve facilities and services in their communities
• they can get training and support to:
  • to invest in their business
  • adapt to climate change
  • farm their land sustainably
  • take better care of their environment – for the benefit of us all
• During the Covid19 pandemic Fairtrade Co-operatives provided members of their communities with sanitary equipment, advice and supplies; emergency food supplies to cope with the hardship.

To find out more about what Fairtrade is and does you’ll find a brief summary here

For more, visit the Fairtrade Foundation website

What we do:

The Fairtrade Foundation had published a Campaigners’ Guide to help individuals and Fairtrade Grassroots Groups, like Gosport Fairtrade Action, find the most effective actions for them to take. GFA does many of them but not all! Download the guide and see if you could help us achieve more!   

GFA aims to promote Fairtrade to all sectors of the community in Gosport by:

• organising events in Fairtrade Fortnight,
• providing displays about Fairtrade
• taking part in local events through the year, including
• selling Fairtrade products;
• offering tastings to introduce Fairtrade products to new audiences
• offering fun ways of finding out more about Fairtrade;
• working with groups in Gosport to explain why Fairtrade matters and how people can introduce Fairtrade to their:
• schools and colleges
• businesses
• places of worship
• voluntary organisations

Campaigning – We also campaign on issues related to to Fairtrade. climate change, sustainability, and workers rights, with particular reference to women, have all featured. For example: Fairtrade producers have issued requests for support in tackling the impacts of climate change, so we have joined in with international campaigns to support the Loss and Damage fund. We work with other local groups in the SE Hants Region such as Gosport and Fareham Friends of the Earth, Global Justice Portsmouth and Fairtrade Groups in Havant and Portsmouth).

We encourage Fairtrade supporters to write to our MP and sometimes we join with others in peaceful demonstrations about relevant issues:

Resources

GFA can offer you locally produced resources (Visit the RESOURCES page) to help you with events: exhibitions; talks with PowerPoint presentations including videos, customised for your school, or organisation, on a wide range of Fairtrade related issues [ contact us here) – We’ll have a chat and see what can be done.

Buying Fairtrade products – here or visit ‘What can I do?’

Recent Activities

We published an annual newsletter until 2019 with an illustrated annual review of what we had been doing – see them here

Since then we have recorded out activities on this website: to see what we are doing currently, visit “Activities“. For previous years see the “Archive” pages under “Gosport”.

If you would like to be involved in any way with Gosport Fairtrade Action, please contact us