fair trade – Page 12 – Rainbow Turtle

Volunteers’ Week Celebration

7th June 2019 rainbowturtle2002

It’s Volunteers’ Week this week (1st – 7th June) so to celebrate we got together with some of our amazing shop volunteers and charity trustees on Wednesday, had some tasty sandwiches and cakes, and had a good chat. It was great to see so many of our volunteers at once, and a good opportunity for everyone to meet or catch up with those who tend to help out on different days. Rainbow Turtle wouldn’t be where it is today, and wouldn’t be able to continue, without the support of our fantastic volunteers, so it was only right that we did something to thank them.

We’re also always seeking new volunteers so if you’d like to join this friendly bunch then have a look here for more information and get in touch!

Uncategorized

Recycling for Good Causes

31st May 2019 rainbowturtle2002

As you may know, Rainbow Turtle is a charity but our shop isn’t a traditional charity shop. Everything we sell is new, and has been produced or grown by people who are paid fairly for their work, and are often the people most in need in the world.

This means that everything you buy at Rainbow Turtle – from tea and coffee to jewellery and toys – helps people all over the world.

But did you know our charity can still benefit from donations of your unwanted items? Instead of selling them on, we collect your old phones, laptops, jewellery (even costume or broken jewellery), foreign or UK currency (including out of circulation coins and notes), gadgets like sat navs and MP3 players, and used stamps, and send them off to Recycling for Good Causes. In return, we get a cheque for Rainbow Turtle!

Uncategorized

Fairtrade Fortnight 2019

28th May 2019 rainbowturtle2002

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight (February 25th to March 10th) was themed around cocoa production and also looked at the empowerment of female farmers – about a third of the producers of Divine Chocolate are women, so they deserve a say!

To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, Rainbow Turtle organised two schools conferences. For local primary school pupils, we arranged a visit to St Mirren Park, to hear from Bala Sport (who produce Fairtrade footballs), WOSDEC, St Mirren Women’s Football Club, and from Rainbow Turtle. It was a great day, with lots of learning about the work that goes into making a football, the benefits of Fairtrade for football workers, and also the parallel difficulties of being a female farmer/producer and a woman in sport. And the amazing news to come out of the event is that St Mirren WFC are now using Fairtrade footballs for their matches!

For secondary school pupils, Rainbow Turtle, in conjunction with the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, organised for Aimable Nshimiye, a coffee producer from Rwanda, to visit Mary Russell School and speak about his business and how becoming Fairtrade certified has helped them to grow. The Mary Russell pupils had thought up some interesting questions for Aimable in advance! Rainbow Turtle are very grateful to the Renfrewshire Fair Trade Steering Group for their support in organising this event, as well as the one at St Mirren Park.

Other activities which took place during Fairtrade Fortnight 2019 included a Fairtrade Bake Off at Gryffe High School, which we were lucky enough to be asked to help judge – look at those amazing cakes! The winner (which we don’t have a picture off because it was scoffed too quickly!) was judged to be best because of its delicious taste, its perfect appearance, and most importantly its high quantity of Fairtrade ingredients!

It was fantastic fortnight, and so encouraging to see the real engagement with Fairtrade Fortnight and the ideas of Fair Trade that so many local schools and organisations have!