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.

http://www.dubble.co.uk

Fairtrade Fortnight Events

Me in Ghana, meeting school kids.
I taught them several Leeds United songs.

I am doing a fortnight of events to mark 2012's Fairtrade Fortnight.

The tour runs from 27th February to March 10th.

I'll be working with Divine Chocolate, who very kindly helped me visit Ghanaian cocoa bean farms in 2009.

The trip helped me to write my book, Off Side, which is about a Ghanaian boy called Kofi, who has a chance to play football in Europe and whose family runs a cocoa bean farm.

I'll be talking about my trip during the events and about how I have seen that our buying of fairtrade products makes a huge difference in farmers' lives. I'll also be handing out free Dubble Bars!

There is more information about the tour here. Please do get in touch if you want more information.