Fairtrade has been awarded a Comic Relief grant of £868,219 to extend its ground-breaking African Gold Programme which aims to support the world’s first responsibly sourced gold from East Africa.
Fairtrade has
been awarded a Comic Relief grant of £868,219 to extend its ground-breaking African
Gold Programme which aims to support the world’s first responsibly sourced gold
from East Africa.
The four-year programme
builds on a pilot funded by Comic Relief from 2012-2015 which supported nine
mining groups across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to work towards Fairtrade
certification.
The grant will allow
these mining sites to further invest in their own development, increase
productivity and eventually deliver sales in to international Fairtrade markets.
Michael Gidney,
Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation said: “The situation faced by
small-scale miners across Africa is a scandal that should have no place in
modern supply chains. We are working to create a Fairtrade business model
that will change that, and we are delighted that our renewed support from Comic
Relief will enable us to make even faster progress”.
Support
from Comic Relief has already brought benefits to miners like Johannes Ojowi
from MICODEPRO mining group in Kenya who says: “The training
we have received through Fairtrade has enlightened us here. It has taught us
how to mine, to be safe.”
Over the next four
years the African Gold Programme will support miners to work towards
certification and to improve the safety, cleanliness and productivity of their
mining sites by improving their access to finance and training.
There are currently
two Fairtrade certified mines in Peru, SOTRAMI and MACDESA, with a total annual
production of 800kg of gold and 200kg of silver. Once the African mines become
Fairtrade certified, they will add a further 44kg gold to volumes available to
international Fairtrade markets. First launched in 2011 in the UK, jewellery
made from Fairtrade gold can now be bought in many markets around the world
including recent launches in Switzerland and the USA. Fairtrade offers
jewellers and businesses three different ways to sell Fairtrade gold.
–
ENDS –