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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 30 April 2019. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
IT'S a joy to give gifts that you know will please the recipient.
It's an even greater joy when you also know that the people who made the gifts were paid and treated fairly. Buying locally from known suppliers is one way of ensuring such a double benefit.
Another is Fair Trade - and it's never been easier to find and order Fair Trade goods, whether you're doing so as an individual or as a church.
Oxford's Fair Trade at St Michael's shop in Cornmarket Street.
Local Fair Trade shops offer a broad selection from both well-known Fair Trade retailers such as Traidcraft and smaller producers.
Oxford's Fair Trade at St Michael's, for example, buys from over 70 different suppliers, covering everything from jewellery to fine foods to home decorations and stationery. In addition to individual gifts, several Fair Trade shops, including Headington's Windmill Shop and Faringdon's Mustard Seed, offer Christmas hampers. If you'd like to offer a Fair Trade gift stall at your church, the area's network of Fair Trade retailers and Fair Traders can offer sale-or-return stalls.
Let them know the kind of goods you want, and they give you a selection fully priced and ready to sell.
There's no outlay for the church: you simply return the money from sales and whatever goods are left unsold. Another way of ordering is to circulate Traidcraft catalogues within your church, gather orders and give them either to a Traidcraft Fair Trader in your congregation or to a Fair Trader near you. The goods are delivered to a central point (orders in Milton Keynes, for example, can be picked up at Christ the Cornerstone) or directly to the location your church designates, so that people can pick them up at a convenient time.
Want more information about any of these options? Please contact Maranda St John Nicolle, diocesan World Development Adviser, on maranda@ccow.org.uk or 01235 851 763.