Saturday 25 February 2012

Fair Trade Fortnight


It's Fair Trade Fortnight: two weeks in which we can celebrate how buying fair trade products makes a difference to farmers around the world.

I went to Ghana to research my children's novel, Off Side. It is the story of a boy who is the son of a cocoa farmer. He is a great footballer and is taken to Europe to sign for a big team.

I travelled to Ghana to get my facts right. I wanted to see youth football in Ghana and I wanted to see what cocoa bean farming was like.

Divine - who make Dubble Bars too - were very generous and showed me round.  I learned a lot about the differences between fair and unfair trade. I met farmers and their children and I saw the schools and other facilities that had been built with the extra few pence we spend on each fair trade chocolate bar.

It makes a MASSIVE difference.

I'm touring several schools in the next fortnight to talk about how I researched the book and how Fair Trade chocolate does make such a difference.

I will not eat any of the several hundred Dubble Bars I have in the boot of my car.


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