In episode 6 of our current series we meet 3 more volunteers from Rainbow Turtle.
First up is Kitty McEachen, an escapee from Glasgow who, to her surprise, found that Paisley wasn’t such a bad place to live in, especially when she came upon Rainbow Turtle and some of the committed volunteers, including the inspiring founder, Liz Cotton.
Next we have Duncan Macintosh, a long term supporter of fair trade, and early stall holder, who became a volunteer in the shop when he retired in 2009.
Finally we meet Marianne Sermanni, volunteer and trustee of the charity who, though her friendship with Roisin Mulholland (we spoke to Roisin in episode 2), started working in the shop in 2017.
In episode 5 of series 3 of our podcast we meet Elise Kelly, our creative shop manager. Elise has been in charge for about three and a half years. She joined us when we were just coming out of covid when things were tight and sales were poor. During that time Elise has transformed Rainbow Turtle shop into a bright and colourful place to come and buy fair trade products.
After Elise we have Jonathan Barr, one of our younger volunteers, who was unemployed when he first joined and now has developed a broad set of retail skills.
Finally, we have Sarah Hurst, our newest volunteer, who combines her background in sales with her developing aptitude in social media to help promote the shop on Facebook and Instagram.
In this edition of our podcast, Rainbow Turtle Rebooted, we introduce you to Joyce Jackson who started out as a fair trade stall holder in her local church before being inveigled into volunteering at the shop by Liz Cotton when she retired 7 or 8 years ago.
Following Joyce we have Clotilde Raydon, who 6 years ago came into the shop to get some refills for cleaning products. After a couple of visits, Liz Cotton, the then manager and director of the shop, invited Clotilde to become a volunteer.
Finally, we hear from Chris Johnstone, volunteer, director of the shop and chair of the charity trustees. He started out in fair trade when his GP’s practice became the first fair trade practice in Scotland.
In this mini podcast episode, we meet long standing Rainbow Turtle volunteers: Gillian Henry, Roisin Mulholland and Maureen Brough. In it they share why fair trade is important to them and what are their favourite products that they can buy in the shop. Unsurprisingly, chocolate and coffee feature high on their lists!
Michael Gidney, currently the chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, has worked for at least 30 years in international development (which corresponds nicely with the 30th anniversary of FT movement in UK). He started out as a teacher in Kenya and then for their children’s services in an orphanage, has worked with Voluntary Services Overseas and with Amnesty International. He joined Traidcraft in 19991 and became Director of Policy, then moved to the Fairtrade Foundation in 2009 as deputy executive director and has been chief executive since 2012. He is also a trustee of Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
This was a most interesting interview where we discussed the dangers of commoditisation of products and the importance of fair trade to producers and farmers.
We’re delighted to announced that series 3 of our podcast, Rainbow Turtle Rebooted, is planned to be released during fair trade fortnight 2024 with episode 1 out on Monday 9th September. So if you’d like to listen to it, please subscribe to it in your relevant app. In the meantime, here is a taster…
As part of its celebration for the 30th anniversary of the fair trade mark, Renfrewshire schools ran an artwork competition using this year’s theme for fair trade fortnight of Being The Change. As I took photos of all these fantastic panels outside Paisley’s museum, I couldn’t help but be moved by their inspiring work. Enclosed are the shortlisted and winning entries.
Sample of pupils’ artwork
Renfrewshire has a proud history of supporting the Fairtrade movement, with Paisley first becoming a Fairtrade town in 2003. Then in 2007, Fairtrade Zone status was achieved for the whole Renfrewshire area, with Renfrewshire Council working alongside many volunteers, stakeholders and communities across Renfrewshire, many of whom continue these efforts today.
Renfrewshire’s children and young people have always been champions of the Fairtrade movement and are often the catalysts for changing purchasing habits within their own households. Many Renfrewshire schools and nurseries support the Fairtrade movement across their school communities.
The beautiful artwork displayed here has been created by pupils from Mary Russell School in Paisley, Newmains Primary School in Renfrew, and St Peter’s Primary School in Paisley.
The artists’ ages range from Primary 4 up to secondary pupils and the work shows their response to ‘Be the Change, which is the theme for this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight.
We would like to thank all the children and young people, and their teachers, for such fantastic and creative pieces. [Text courtesy of Renfrewshire Council.]
Thanks to Renfrewshire Council for organising and funding this competition.
Age group winnerAge group winnerAge group winnerHighly commended
Fairtrade is an international movement to support the fair, ethical and sustainable production and procurement of goods.
Fairtrade focuses on paying a fair price for products to support low income and disadvantaged farmers, producers and workers in lower income countries.
Fairtrade is often recognised by the Fairtrade mark, which indicates that the production of an item has met agreed standards. ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ helps to celebrate Fairtrade movement. In 2024, Fairtrade Fortnight runs from Monday 9 September to Sunday 22 September.
Fairtrade closely aligns with efforts to tackle the climate crisis-at the heart of Fairtrade is sustainable farming and empowering smallholder farmers. Fairtrade products also comply with strict environmental standards.
Many Fairtrade producers and farmers are based in the global south, in areas most significantly impacted by the extremes of weather recognised to be caused by climate change.
Friends of Rainbow Turtle, Spot, Bruno and Sylvia have been busy making films for young ones, to educate, entertain and inspire on a variety of Fairtrade topics. Spot has been learning about the manufacture and production of Fairly traded footballs in Pakistan, Bruno has been making hot chocolate for his friends and thinking up ideas for a bake off in September for Fair Trade Fortnight, and Sylvia has been looking at fast fashion, taking on the Shein Machine, and trying to understand how the Fairtrade Premium benefits workers and their communities.
The teddies recently made a visit to Newton Mearns Primary School, in Glasgow, where children and teachers are working hard to become a Fairtrade school. The pupils are very keen to organise a Fair Trade football tournament for this Septembers’ Fairtrade Fortnight and they are also planning a Fairtrade community coffee morning at their school this spring. Rainbow Turtle will continue to support them in their efforts and the teddies really look forward to visiting more schools and community groups in the future.
If you would like Spot, Bruno and Sylvia to visit your nursery, school, community or church group please do get in touch with Philippa, who is covering maternity leave for our education officer Linda. Her email is philippa@rainbowturtle.org.uk
We’re in the final stages of preparing series 2 of our podcast, Rainbow Turtle Rebooted. We thought that we’d put out a wee taster as preparation for the start.
In this new series we have interviews with:
John Riches, founder of JTS, Professor of Divinity and Episcopal church minister.
Mary Popple, member of St. Andrew’s fair trade group and chairperson of JTS.
Kiera Wilkins, development officer with the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and one of the founders of the Alternative Coffee Co. A social enterprise set up to link fair trade coffee producers with specialty coffee roasters in the UK.
We hope to have our first episode of this new series out for the beginning of fair trade fortnight 2023 on Monday 27th February.
After the great success of our anniversary ceilidh last year, we’d like to give you an early warning of our upcoming ceilidh on Saturday 11th March from 7 to 11pm at the Methodist Central Hall in Paisley. We’re delighted to announce that Tuesday International will be our band for that evening. The cost has still to be confirmed, but we’d like to make it family friendly and open to as many as we can.
As usual refreshments will be provided along with a raffle. BYOB, no alcohol, please!
This ceilidh will be a fund raiser for Rainbow Turtle’s charitable work.
Tickets are now available from our Paisley shop in Gauze Street, or from Eventbrite. Tickets cost £6 for adults and £3 per child plus Eventbrite’s booking fees if buying online.
