The Saarpfalz district continues to fulfil all five criteria of the Fairtrade Towns campaign and has held the title of Fairtrade district for a further two years since 2015. This was announced by the campaign management of Fairtrade Deutschland e. V. in December last year. A reason to celebrate and at the same time an unusual task for a local authority was announced ten years ago in January, when the then First District Councillor Dr Theophil Gallo accepted the award certificatefor the Fairtrade district from Manfred Holz, Honorary Ambassador of Transfair Köln e. V.. District Administrator Hans-Jürgen Petrauschke and Harald Vieten, Head of Press and Public Relations and the Fairtrade Campaign at Rhein-Kreis Neuss, had come to congratulate Dr Gallo despite the considerable distance, but even more so to provide advice, support and optimism for the start. The Rhine district of Neuss was the first district in Germany to fulfil all the criteria of the global "Fairtrade Town" campaign. All those who had supported the application from the district-wide Fairtrade steering group, catering, trade, churches, world shops, NGOs, schools, daycare centres, business development and, last but not least, other Fairtrade Towns, the Fairtrade Initiative Saarland and the Fairtrade University were also present.
Since then, there has been a lot of collaboration and planning. The first fair daycare centres in the Saarland were established in Alschbach, Schwarzenacker and St. Ingbert, documenting their intercultural learning content. Good working conditions, better health and labour standards, gender and wage equality, climate justice - these are all topics that are reflected in the projects and collaborations of recent years and should be brought to the attention of many people. This is also the reason for the Fairtrade Circle's participation in weekly markets and campaign markets such as the Fairtrade Market and the Biosphere Market.
By swapping plastic bags for cotton fabric bags, which were imaginatively decorated and skilfully sewn by the Kirkel sewing box at AQuiS as part of a training course, the aim was to encourage people to do without environmentally harmful end products. At the same time, they wanted to promote the idea of sustainability by using sustainable fabric bags produced under socially acceptable conditions. For Fashion Revolution Week in April 2022, fair textiles and fast fashion were the focus of online workshops with experts and citizens in memory of the 5,000 people killed in the collapse of the factory building in Bangladesh. These workshops were organised with the Fairtrade City of Homburg and the Fairtrade Initiative Saarland. From summer 2022, this developed into a student project between the Christian von Mannlich-Gymnasium, the Mills E. Godwin High School in the partner district of Henrico County VA, India and the Fairtrade Initiative Saarland. The working language was English. They worked in more than 15 Sunday online meetings, which had to be organised taking into account the time difference. A campaign logo was developed, a themed exhibition was organised and statements from classmates about their purchasing behaviour and their knowledge of textile production were evaluated. The students conducted an interview with an Indian textile manufacturer about working conditions in the textile industry in India.
The "Fair School Cone" campaign was initiated in 2017 with Saarland Fairtrade Towns, daycare centres and the world shops in Homburg and St. Ingbert. Together with the Fairtrade Town of Homburg, the Homburg One World Shop - and initially also with the KIBELE team at the FrauenForum - fair-trade coffee is served on Coffee Fairday in conjunction with a donation to various organisations in the countries of the South. And based on a saying from Uganda, "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now." A children's rights tree is planted every year with the UNICEF Homburg team and the Fairtrade City of Homburg.
"There are many more inspiring projects and good collaborations to mention. The renewed award motivates and challenges us as a local authority to continue to raise awareness of the causes and effects of fair trade and to explain, for example, why the price of a tonne of cocoa has risen so much on the world market and chocolate has become so expensive. As a municipality, we can also contribute to creating prospects for small farmers and their families in the Global South through our purchasing behaviour," explains District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, adding that until the next certification in 2027, the aim is to support interested primary and secondary schools on their way to becoming Fairtrade schools, but also to continue with tried and tested methods. For example, the Fairtrade ambassador exhibition and a wheel of fortune with questions about fair trade can still be borrowed.