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These photos are from OWW events in 2013. They give a glimpse of a few of the inspiring events that were organised around the country:

1. ABERDEEN - (organiser John Foster)

This striking portrait was painted by Tracey Swift especially for a OWW art exhibition held in the gallery at Seventeen Belmont Street. The exhibition, entitled "Holding our world tegether" was open throughout One World Week. It was one of 14 OWW events held in Aberdeen; they included talks, a ceilidh, a 'Shared Planet Cafe', films, discussions, an interfaith service and a "Human Library Event" on "Faith ,money and human well-being' which was put on by Aberdeen Inter Faith and Aberdeen Central Library.




2.The story from STAMFORD (Lincolnshire) (photos: Paul Biggins)

people looking at exhibitionin Stamford Arts CentreOrganiser, Jan Hetherington, reports:

"The Fairtrade Town Group (FTT Group) organised OWW events around a week-long exhibition held in the Gallery at Stamford Arts Centre produced.  It featured a campaign to raise awareness of the conditions for the garment workers in the developing countries.

“The main focus of the exhibition was on the campaign run since Fairtrade Fortnight in February, by the FTT Group, entitled “The Right Label?”.  New College (local FE college) students presented a massive display running the full length of the Gallery designed following a talk by George Hetherington. Other displays informed visitors where clothing sold in Stamford was being made and what were believed to be the ethical policies of the companies manufacturing and selling the clothing in our Stamford shops. The idea was to enable buyers to choose “The Right Label”.

“The campaign was started prior to the disastrous fire in Pakistan and building collapse in Bangladesh. We were contacted by Labour Behind the Label  to do a candlelit vigil outside the Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Stamford, because their labels were found in the rubble of the factory fire and they were not willing to take any responsibility or pay any compensation. Interestingly the staff in the Stamford shop were not aware of where the clothing was made and the manager tried to get the police to move us on, but Stamford doesn’t often have any police about!! Because of the various vigils round the country, EWM threatened to sue LBL. With workers killed that have been making clothing to be sold in Stamford the campaign is very relevant to all of us.”

The exhibition also featured art work from local primary schools and stalls from ethical fashion businesses.  There were interactive events to involve visitors.

The organisers, a 12 strong team, reported that they involved lots of local and National organisations:

“Stamford Fairtrade Town Steering group, Friends of the Earth, Stamford Transition Town group, New College (further education), St Gilbert’s Primary School, “Labour behind the Label” (We have had a lot of help from them with the campaign all year and their publicity material is very helpful. They are based in Bristol and well worth contacting if you want to do some kind of clothing campaign), Malcolm Sargent Primary School, Oxfam, NUS, Pachamama, Women for Conservation, Greencircle, The Well at Barn Hill, Epona.”

Associated events included:

OWW Churches Together act of Worship Sunday 20th October which took place in the Ballroom at the Stamford Arts Centre. The service was led by Rev. Jane Campbell of the United Reformed Church and John Chambers from the Free Church. The preacher, from Oakham Methodist Church, was Rev. Richard Baggott, who previously worked for Christian Aid. All were welcome.

Evening reception for supporters and members of the Town Council. “Instead of the usual speaker, we had a “Question Time” event, popular on TV.  The question time forum went very well. (We had hoped to get our MP, Alan Duncan, but he was unable to come).  We had a local retailer who sells fairtrade; Elizabeth from Women for Conservation and Tom from Epona who started a fair trade importing business which he has now sold to NUS but he still works for them. All 3 made excellent contributions and it was a very good evening.”

The campaign certainly seems to have met its objectives to raise awareness.  The organiser, Jan Hetherington, reported:

“People said that they had become much more aware of the problems of the garment makers in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. They were very interested in our findings which resulted from our approaches to clothing manufacturers who had branches in our local High street.

The schools and further education college which took part are now much more aware of fair trade issues in general and the plight of the clothing workers in particular. The Art department from the college produced an amazing display of interpretations of the information they had gleaned from the Panorama programme about the garment factories.”

 

Congratulations to all involved and thanks to Paul Biggins who took the photos. To see more photos of OWW in Stamford Click here