SIGN A PETITION

o This is mainly about getting the government and the EU to listen to what we have to say on these issues, which is a huge part of the work.  For example, if there was a law that all supermarkets had to stock fairly traded goods, then they would all have to and there would be fair trade J.

o The great thing about these petitions is that they are so diverse – have a look at the Stop The Traffik petition at www.stopthetraffik.org – if you went to MYC07 you may remember this!  If you don’t feel that you have the time to look around the internet for a petition to sign, and if you’re on Facebook, check out Tearfund’s Superbadger application.  This is really easy to use, as all the emails that you can send are pre-written.  Of course, you can change it if you want, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.  Background info is also available, so it’s all really easy to find in one place!

RAISE AWARENESS

o Get campaigning!  The more people know about what’s going on, the more able they are to do something about it.  Everyone knows that slavery is bad, but not everyone knows that it’s still around.  Start telling people about what’s happening – there are loads of ideas on the Stop The Traffik website.

In our letter from the Joint Advisory Committee of Ethical Investment (JACEI - the people who look after things that the Methodist Church is involved in financially), we were advised that “campaign action” and “investor engagement” could be reinforcing each other.  What this means is that if everyone combines their campaigning with the action of the Methodist Church, we are more likely to get a result.

o You’ve heard of a Fair-trade Church… now comes the Fair-trade town! Visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/campaigns to find out more.

Info taken from www.fairtrade.org.uk, www.stopthetraffik.org, www.search-for-me.co.uk,