East Africa Delegation
United Students for Fair Trade (USFT)
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
The U.S. Fair Trade movement is focused largely on coffee and the Latin American countries where most of our coffee is produced. This has been especially true of U.S. students, who have campaigned successfully at hundreds of colleges across the country to get Fair Trade coffee on campus. The United Students for Fair Trade (USFT), a national, student-run organization with hundreds of affiliates nationwide, decided in 2006 to shift the focus of the Fair Trade debate to Africa. This was welcome and exciting news to us at CRS, since we invest more than half of our overseas resources in Africa and work hard to engage U.S. Catholics in actions that promote justice in Africa.
A CRS Fair Trade Fund Market-Building Grant helped finance a month-long interfaith immersion for more than one dozen student leaders from across the United States, selected through an intense and competitive process. During their time in East Africa, these student leaders developed direct relationships with Fair Trade cooperatives, explored the ways faith motivated them to promote Fair Trade, and worked to develop strategies to promote Fair Trade for Africa after their return to the United States.
Read more about the Africa delegation.
Learn more about USFT and the 2007 Convergence scheduled for February 16-19, 2007 in Boston — the fourth annual international gathering of student leaders convened by USFT.