SUPPORT FAIR TRADE AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD
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Giselle Vriesen creates Anti-Racism resources for educators and lives in the Cowichan Valley.
ith radical awakenings to cultural bias and racism, rising sea levels and warming weather—it’s become clear that we all need to change the way we live our everyday lives. We need to change to create a world that’s fair for everyone to live in. To create an equal world means examining our daily habits, since we all now understand inequality has been normalized into the everyday. It means making decisions that support and
encourage a world full of beauty and health—without overhead corporate greed and racial inequity bleeding through. Sustainability is something coming up more and more in discussions about saving the planet and pioneering equality. Sustainable solutions are ones that don’t cost the earth in the long term, or the people living on it in exchange for profit. Supporting Fair Trade is one of the foremost ways to make sustainability, within consumerist lives, a reality. In North America we’ve become very used to paying staggeringly little for the pain-staking work of people we will never meet, and never care to. Without understanding that
in so doing, we’re supporting the active suppression and disempowerment of primarily women of colour in marginalized parts of the world and uplifting companies dedicated to polluting our environment. Fair Trade is a system of doing business that is truly ethical. It means supporting communities most detrimentally affected by capitalism and uplifting the people inside by paying artisans and farmers what they deserve for the work they put in. So, in a word, Fair Trade is fair.
Buying Fair Trade means supporting a system of doing business rooted in
transparency, respect, and support. It means paying workers a living wage for what they do. And, because most of the people supported by Fair Trade are women, it fights gender inequality and the staggering facts of women historically and currently owning less land and having less money. Businesses and companies who are Fair Trade are those dedicated to putting people before profit. So, supporting Fair Trade products and companies is in effect encouraging the growth of a world where we are all accountable to one another in healing the trauma of our past and creating a brighter future.
Fair Trade is the only way business can be done where consumerism doesn’t consume the artisan who creates. It’s a system that ensures workers, especially those in countries suffering most harshly from the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic, are being treated and paid equally for the amount of work they do. Fair Trade is sustainable business, and sustainability, as we all know, is our only way forward.
SaoirsesProject
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• Individualised laboratory testing and analysis • Clear, guided individualised health programs • In-person, online or hybrid support offered Reoccuring injuries/ Chronic pain •Digestive health •Low energy •Anxiety/depression •Trauma recovery •Concussion/ head injuries
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