BU students take steps for Fairtrade

20 March 2012

Leisure Marketing students walk a symbolic journey to Uganda for Fairtrade.

Two step machines were set up on Talbot campus and students were invited to contribute to the journey to Uganda as part of the Fairtrade Foundation’s 2012 Campaign ‘Take a Step’.

The Campaign aims to have reached 1.5 million steps by the end of 2012, one step for every farmer and worker in the Fairtrade system. Fairtrade supports those trapped in poverty who are unable to earn enough to send their children to school, invest in healthcare and whose health suffers as they do not have enough to eat. Fairtrade offers farmers and workers a better chance to work their way out of poverty through fairer wages, safer working conditions and investing in projects that improve life for entire communities.

Contributions from BU students ranged from 30 to 1500 steps, totalling 16,000 on the day, reaching the target of the symbolic journey of walking from the UK to Uganda.

Martine Williams one of the organisers of the event said: “The Fairtrade ‘Take a Step’ event was a huge success. We had hundreds of students come along to take part in the day in some way, so thank you to everyone who came.

“Fairtrade is a great charity and their efforts towards helping support trade in developing countries is fantastic. The Centre for Global perspectives at BU works really hard to help develop the Fairtrade efforts in the University, and we are glad that we could help push this further. We hope that students continue to take interest in Fairtrade, and awareness of the charity can develop even more over the coming few years.”