Our Ealing Fairtrade Group meetings are usually held at 6pm on the first or second Thursday of each month, at Oxfam, 34A New Broadway, London W5 2XA (just along from the Town Hall). Our next meeting date is:

Thursday 8th December, 6pm

Please note that for the 8th December meeting, we will be in a meeting room at Ealing Council’s Perceval House, 14/16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL.

Please contact Jackie Whitaker at info@ealingfairtrade.org.uk to let us know if you are planning to attend a meeting, in case we have to change the date at the last moment. We are a friendly group and anyone with an interest in Fairtrade or wanting to gain admin/marketing/promotional/events experience is very welcome to join us.

The annual Fairtrade London conference takes place on Monday 7 November – attended by campaigners, volunteers and local authorities, the conference aims to provide tools and resources for the promotion of Fairtrade.  Whether you are already active promoting Fairtrade within your borough, school, university, faith group, community group or business, or interested in getting involved for the first time, this is the event for you – free tickets are still available from the Fairtrade London website at www.fairtradelondon.org.uk.

Volunteers from Ealing Fairtrade Group have been invited to share best practice on preparing a Fairtrade Town Plan, as our 2011 plan to achieve renewal of Fairtrade Borough status for Ealing was noted to be comprehensive, challenging and innovative.  The conference sessions aim to help all London boroughs either achieve or renew their Fairtrade borough status and support local groups like us who effectively promote and fundraise for the cause in their local community. Currently 22 of London’s 33 boroughs have Fairtrade Borough status – Ealing was awarded the status by the Fairtrade Foundation in April 2008, after a five-year campaign by Ealing Fairtrade Group, and we achieved renewal of the status for Ealing in 2011.

Also, Ealing Fairtrade Group volunteer Shakuntla Joshi (www.shakuntla.com) will present insights from the 2011 Youth Marketing Strategy conference advising campaigners on how they can communicate better with young people (and attract them to get involved). For those interested in this topic, the Coventry based Youth for Fairtrade project, which aims to train 60 young people per year as ambassadors of Fair Trade, has a lot of information on their website: http://youthforfairtrade.com.

Ealing Fairtrade Group is run entirely by volunteers. We receive no official funding to pay for our activities, and rely on fund-raising events and contributions from supporters.  We are currently trying to raise approximately £200 to pay for window stickers for shops and cafes which sell and serve Fairtrade products.

If you would like to make a financial contribution, no matter how small, please send a cheque made payable to ‘Ealing Fairtrade Group’ to: Jackie Whitaker, Ealing Fairtrade Group c/o Oxfam, 34A New Broadway, London, W5 2XA