Description
The 'Just, Pro-active and Informed' project is a national civic education/enhancement pilot effort for 40 schools. It addresses social injustice and economic discrimination in global supply chains. Goal: increase awareness of working conditions in countries of the South, foster consumer awareness and civic attitudes, and encouraging children, youth, student boards and student co-operatives to act for a fairer world and more responsible consumption. Tools: Schools for Fair Trade website, 3 publications, training workshop for NGOs, teachers and students, encouraged participation in the annual Global Education Week event (November 2014 and 2015),World Fair Trade Day (9 May, 2015) and the World Consumer Rights Day (15 March, 2015 and 15 March, 2016). The final project component and the first to start the follow-up in subsequent years and schools will be the honorary renewable recognition: A Fair Trade - Friendly School.
Summary of project results
"Scientists from the Collegium of Socio-Economics of the Warsaw School of Economics point out that consumerism not only became a dominant lifestyle in the second half of the 20th century but also started to play the function of categorising people. For young people, it is an integral part of culture. That is why it is vital to introduce educational activities that foster the attitude of solidarity, responsibility, justice and respect. There was an additional incentive for the project implementation - examples of actions undertaken by young consumers after the tragedy of Rana Plaza factory. It turned out that the owner of the brands favourite among young people (e.g. Cropp, House, Reserved) was not responsible for the delivery chain. Young people got involved in lodging complaints about the clothes because they considered the production conditions unethical. The aim of the project was to foster consumer awareness and civic attitudes of children and youth and to increase the knowledge of working conditions in countries of the South. It also aimed to increase the level of knowledge of Fair Trade principles. About 1,000 students in Poland were encouraged to act for better understanding of responsible and fair consumption, considering not only the brand or the price but also such aspects as environmental and social conditions in places where products are manufactured, producer's fair profits or ways of waste disposal. During the project implementation, there were classes in 40 schools on Fair Trade, trade relations and economic exclusion all over the world. Elements of legal, consumer and civic education were added to the lesson plans. Webinars, a teleconference, seminars and talks were organized during the annual Global Education Week, the World Consumer Rights Day and the World Fair Trade Day. A competition was organized on presenting the issues related to the project. The project beneficiaries were students of secondary schools from all over Poland. The project partner, Fair Trade from Iceland, provided conceptual support for preparing publications, educational materials and the conference. The other partners, Fairtrade from the Czech Republic, Drustvo Humanitas from Slovenia and TVU Mondo from Estonia, played a similar role."
Summary of bilateral results
"The project partner, Fair Trade á Íslandi, provided technical support to the publication, learnings resources and the conference. Beside the bilateral exchange of information about methods of global education, we supported the group by helping it develop a new logo, providing information about the global fair trade movement, fair trade organisations, about pre-conditions of becoming a country representative of Fairtrade International, discussions with Fairtrade Canada about mentoring for Fair Trade á Íslandi, interactions with individuals interested in alternative issues who emigrated from Poland to Iceland and could now support Fair Trade á Íslandi, about participation in the Make Fruit Fair project etc. The project partnership contributed to the Fair Trade-friendly Schools campaign and other projects, including ""The Fair, Engaged and Informed: Campaigning for Fair Trade-friendly Communities (exchange of experience and learning resources) and strengthened the institutional capacity, manifested by the project proponent's involvement in more projects and signing a country representation agreement with Fairtrade International. "