Ralph Making the Rounds

Ralph the Fair Trade doll has been hanging around the office alot lately and quite enjoying his internet fame ever since he lost his job. We're trying to keep him grounded and not let it all get to his head, but we just wanted to point out one place in particular that Ralph was happy to be featured on. A new site in town called, Fair Trade Kids spotted Ralph's video and are currently featuring him on their website. Thanks Fair Trade Kids!

Fair Trade Kids has a really cool goal to,

review and recommend stores, websites and toys that [they] believe are good
for our children, good for our environment and good with the people that
makes them.

Besides the reviews and recommendations, Fair Trade Kids have a fair trade project supporting Peruvian artisans. Check them out and read up on their selected items. Seems like a really great resource out there for parents out there. As Fair Trade Kids puts it, through play and toys, kids learn about the world surrounding them not just by the wonderful stories they create, but also from knowing more about the actual products that are helping them expand their imagination.

We believe that those toys should embody what is important to us. If
every toy is not only educational but also supports fairness in trade and ethics
in their making; if it tells us about different lands a people, if it shares
values of love, honesty, hard work and courage, then is not only a toy, it is a
piece that represents what we stand for.

[photo from Fair Trade Kids]

Ralph Gets Fired

Some of you may be familiar with the infamous doll with the removable eyes and mouth. The dolls were made by a local dollmaker in Chiang Mai, Thailand and discovered during one of our buying trips a few springs ago. We named our office doll Ralph and decided to make a little movie. (As soon as Ralph heard about an opportunity to help spread the word about Fair Trade, he was in!) So check out Ralph’s movie short, and if you like it, share it with others to keep the smiles coming.

So check out Ralph's film debut:

If you link to the Ralph video on your blog or website, let us know and we'll give you a shout out on our blog. And if you have a Ralph doll, send us a photo of you and your Ralph doll and we'll post it on our blog.

If you want to pick up a Ralph doll, now is a good time. They’re on sale on our website.

A quick shout out to Jamie and our friends at TransFair USA for spreading the word about Ralph in a recent e-newsletter. On another note, TransFair USA just announced (on March 9, 2009) an extended list of Certified Fair Trade products. Visit TransFair's website to read the ever expanding list of Certified Fair Trade products.

Fair Trade in the Classroom

After putting up the last post about this year's
National Valentine's Day of Action, our Fair Trade campaign department sent over a photo from a participant.

Here's a photo of the bulletin board outside my social studies classroom at Kellogg School in Falls Village, CT

- Amy Lake

Thanks Amy and everyone at Kellogg School for sending this along and participating. It's great to see the Fair Trade message being spread along.

National Valentine's Day of Action Update

Just checked in with our Global Exchange Fair Trade Cocoa campaign and they tell us that the 2nd National Valentine's Day of Action was a complete success. Last year, educators nationwide educated nearly 2,000 kids about Fair Trade through our National Valentine's Day of Action. Through this action, educators used Global Exchange's Fair Trade curriculum to teach kids about the injustices in the cocoa industry and informed them how to be socially conscious consumers by supporting Fair Trade.

Since last year we reached 2,000 kids in the classroom, we had a goal of reaching 3,000 kids and lo and behold that number was surpassed and educators used Global Exchange's Fair Trade Curriculum to teach over 3,000 kids across 32 states. Hurray for Fair Trade!

Are you an educator and missed the National Valentine's Day of Action this year? Teaching kids about Fair Trade isn't limited to Valentine's Day. Check out the curriculum today and incorporate Fair Trade into your lesson plans all year round.