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Fair Trade means, to trade fair, and pay a fair price to the producer to cover their cost of providing decent wages and working conditions in the production of the goods they make and sell.
Some large companies have been using their buying power to squeeze suppliers on price. However, this has led to the producers having to cut corners, lower standards and working conditions and to use cheap labour, (such as child labour), just to stay in business, the result, a lot of unnecessary suffering.
Fair Trade conditions are not only putting this right, there are many buying organisations which are going further by providing working capital, workshops, raw materials and designs to enable the producing businesses to grow and support themselves as well as provide much needed work in the community.
In addition to this Fair Trade has provided the conditions for a number of charities and community workshops to be established in areas where there is a lot of poverty and very poor living conditions. This has allowed people in these areas to live off their own skills rather than yearly handouts.
A good example of this is the VSO charity which has set up a workshop in Mongolia.
Link to the workshop in Mongolia
In addition to these charitable workshops there are other organisations that have set up businesses to provide an income which is used to support distressed people in various parts of the world.
One such organisation is the recycling plant which has been set up in Delhi by ex-street kids. Those who have been helped in the past are now producing an income by recycling Indian newspapers. This income is then used to help other street kids get off the streets.
Link to those recycling Indian newspapers
There are many such workshops around the world and we plan to report on as many as we can, as time allows.
The goods produced by all these organisations are sold via Fair Trade retail outlets around the world. Selecting Fair Trade goods when ever you can gives much needed help to these organisations.
Therefore the answer to the question is - Yes. Fair Trade does work for the good of people around the world.
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