Dairy Milk in Canada = Fair Trade

Global education and fair trade are my two passions, and I think that is pretty evident on this blog as they seem to be what I write about most often. Recently, I have heard about The Bicycle Factory; a program launched by Cadbury with the goal of delivering 5000 bikes to children in rural Ghana to make it easier for them to get to school.

Through looking at this website, I came across the really exciting news that Cadbury is beginning to go fair trade! Yeah!!

They have something called the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership with the cocoa farmers in Ghana, Indonesia, India, and the Caribbean. Most of their cocoa comes from Ghana, and some of the programs they have created include book collection for schools and libraries, microfinancing for cocoa farmers, bringing clean water to rural areas, and supporting teacher training.

Most recently (summer 2010), the Canadian Dairy Milk chocolate bar has received official fair trade certification. You can tell if an item is fair trade certified by the Transfair stamp on the package. I went to a few different stores this morning, and saw the fair trade Dairy Milk on their shelves. Shoppers Drug Mart even had the tiny size to sell in package for Halloween!

As outlined on the Cadbury website, the benefits of Dairy Milk going fair trade include:

• Quadrupling the sales of Fair Trade cocoa from Ghana under Fair Trade terms as a result of Cadbury’s commitment to Fair Trade across five markets, including Canada

• Will affect over 40,000 cocoa farmers and open up new opportunities for farmers to benefit from the Fair Trade system

• Assure Canadians that when they buy Fair Trade Certified Cadbury Dairy Milk – they are directly benefitting farmers and their communities

Check out the Fair Trade Dairy Milk website to see video clips and further information about how this is transforming Ghanian communities. Fair trade certified Dairy Milk bars are also available in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. This blog, Cadbury Fair Trade, has much more information including FAQ's such as when the rest of Cadbury will be going fair trade, and whether the price will change.



The biggest criticism right now is that only one of Cadbury's products is fair trade. I understand this, but also think that it is incredible of Cadbury to be taking the first steps.

What are ways we can encourage other chocolate companies to go fair trade, and Cadbury to make its other products fair trade?

1) Boycott, boycott, boycott.

ONLY buy Cadbury Dairy Milk, or other fair trade certified chocolate, like Cocoa Camino. I will admit.. this will not be easy for me! I love my Reese's! But I think it's an important step to take to urge other chocolate companies to do the same.

2) The Hershey Company is lagging far behind Cadbury in terms of global development and fair treatment to its cocoa farmers. Send Hershey's a letter, letting them know what you think about this, and telling them that you are only going to buy Cadbury and Cocoa Camino fair trade products until Hershey's steps up and goes fair trade as well.

3) Send Cadbury a letter, praising them for going fair trade and letting them know how important this is.

4) Contact the stores in your area that currently do not sell fair trade Dairy Milk, and ask them to sell it in replace of another chocolate bar they currently do sell (for example, a Hershey bar). No Frill's in my neighbourhood does not sell Dairy Milk, and I will post their letter to me on the blog, if they get back to me.



Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. ~Author Unknown

Tsehay: Summer 2010

My sponsor kids are very, very important to me. Especially Tsehay, as I have been sponsoring her the longest, and was able to meet her when I went to Ethiopia last year. I just got my annual update with a new picture of her, and I am always so excited when these come in the mail.

She is still wearing the pair of shoes I bought her 2 years ago. It is reported that her health is good, her talent is drawing, she helps at home by carrying the baby, and her best friend's name is Abayitu. Her favourite food is bread, her favourite sport is 'jump' (skipping?), her pet animal is an ox (I bought them the ox earlier this year, and she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

In school she is doing good and excellent in all subjects, which I was thrilld to read. Tsehay has sruggled with school, as many girls in rural Ethiopia do. She often doesn't attend as she stays home to watch the animals, and it took her quite a while to get through grade 1. She is now in grade 2 and is expected to pass to grade 3. Her favourite class is local language (Oromic).

This year, her family participated in a farming training activity. They benefited through World Vision by receiving a bed, an ox, books, pens, clothes, and a cow.

I send a package to Tsehay every month or two. Today I mailed her two pairs of leggings (in Ethiopia the girls wears pants underneath their dresses) and a backpack. I was sure, in the letter I wrote her, to make a huge deal about how great she is doing in school. That is my main goal with sponsorship; to encourage my sponsor kids to attend school and work hard at it, and continue to support them through secondary school and college.

Without Words: India

Have you ever had a moment in life that was so powerful it left you speechless? For those reading who have done work in developing countries, you probably know what I am talking about. When I am travelling and working abroad, I often struggle with communicating my feelings. I write without proofreading and I write the first things that come to my mind. Often I don't express it very well, but it is the best way of sharing my initial thoughts and communicating with my friends and family from home who are wanting to check in on me. There have been moments on each of my trips that have literally left me speechless; moments that I have not blogged about for the sole purpose being that I couldn't find the words to properly describe them.

I have been home from India for four months now. Of everywhere I have ever travelled, India, without doubt, imapacted me the most. There is something very special about India to me. Even before I travelled there, I knew that I would experience things on a deeper level than I had in other countries. I am not sure why. Perhaps this is something that differs from person to person, and India is just that place for me. It changed something inside of me that I still haven't quite figured out.

I want to share a moment from my time in India that I was not able to put into words right after it happened.

Everyone who reads my blog knows how much love I have for April. She lives in the orphanage in India that I spent a month in, and is blind and has cerebal palsy. She is 6 years old and at the beginning of my trip, would not allow people to touch her, because she had spent so much time alone in a crib when she grew up in a different government-run orphanage. I worked with her daily, endured many tantrums and painful moments of watching her scratch and hit herself and scream until she was red in the face. By the end of the month she was sitting, snuggled in my arms, for much of every day. She would rub her cheek for kisses, and smile whenever she was tickled, heard music, or put to play in the baby pool. She is a little fish and water is her greatest love. My heart is broken not to be able to be with her every day and watch her grow up, but I am comforted by the updates I am hearing from India; telling me that she is still thriving and interacting with many other volunteers and ayahs the way she had interacted with me; open to love.

One day, near the end of my trip, I was sitting on the beds in the baby room with April snuggled on my lap. Sarah and Chelsea were nearby, both with kids crawling around them, and we were spending some quiet time interacting with the children. I began something I did every day with April; I rocked her slowly, sang to her, and rubbed her stomach. Sometimes I would rub her arm, or her back, or her leg; anything to get her used to the feeling of human touch.

That day, April did something she had never done before. She showed curiosity. Rather than pushing my arm away, as she did so often, she embraced it. Having being blind since birth, April had never seen the face of her caretaker. Having grown up in an orphanage, this caretaker was often absent, taking on other tasks, and April began to push people away. Hands were something that scared her; touched her too roughly, made her do things she was scared to do. This day, April grabbed hold of my hand. She used her fingers and ever so slightly and softly began running her hands over each of my nails. She moved on to my fingers, and then back to my nails; touching each inch with a look of deep concentration on her little face.

It was the first time April had truly initiated human interaction.

She was curious, and her heart was open.

This may seem like something very minor to someone who has never worked with a child with special needs. Before I went to this orphanage, I probably would not have undersood the big deal. But now my heart has been changed and this moment; witnessing this neglected and abused little girl turn into someone open to love, will be forever engraved in my memory.

Next Up... Kenya!

Anyone who has me on Facebook knows that I have been struggling with the decision of whether or not to go to Kenya this December. There were a lot of pros and cons to going and not going:

Pros: It is a Free the Children staff trip. Marc and Craig Kielburger will be there, at least 100 of my colleagues, and it's pretty obvious that I would learn a HUGE amount and get first hand knowledge about the programs I am speaking to so many schools about. Plus, I have always wanted to go to Kenya, particularly to the Masaai Mara, and have always wanted to go on a safari (a one day safari is on the itinerary). The trip is quite cheap as I only have to pay airfare.

Cons: I have learned that I am not much of a group traveller. I love getting to choose my own schedule and doing what I want to do (yeah, that is probably selfish). This will mean that the trip Chris and I were planning for the summer (destination TBD, likely in South America) will have to be postponed a few months. Plus, the trip is quite short (December 27 - January 6) which will be disappointing given that my last 2 trips were both 2 months.

The pros outweighed the cons and I am going to Kenya!

I have some saving $$ to do (a lot of the expenses are covered, but it will still be about $2000 + spending money) but I am really excited! I likely won't be blogging while on my trip this time (there won't be Internet), but I will keep a journal and share everything when I get home. I have been to Africa before (Ethiopia) and even though Kenya and Ethiopia border each other, they are so different and I am excited to get a different look into life in Africa. I can't wait!

This is my all time favourite FTC video. It is shot in Kenya in a community I will be visiting.


This video is about the Me to We trip to Kenya. We will be doing things slightly different, given that it is a staff trip, so rather than school building every day, we will be touring the sites, having discussions with the Kenyan staff about how we can best support them, and LEARNING about social justice issues in Kenya!

Free the Children

I haven't been posting much on my blog lately, but it hasn't been because I haven't been busy. Life has been quite crazy in the past 2 weeks! I got a new job and moved to Toronto! It is a pretty incredible job and I am really excited about it. I probably won't post too much about it on my blog, because I want to keep the blog more about my volunteer work, but I do want to write a post about what I will be doing, because I am pretty excited about the opportunity. We have a big event coming up on September 30th (We Day) so I will likely post about that a bit later, as it is going to be incredible.

As many people who have worked abroad with me know, I am picky when it comes to NGOs. There are a few things that I am very passionate about, and a few aspects of a charity that I find crucial. Education is most important. Sustainability is at the top as well. I am quite critical of the NGOs I work with; not because I think they are doing a bad job, but because I always want to take every opportunity to improve. With that being said, I am working for Free the Children and I have never been so impressed with a charitable organization... and that is saying a LOT. Some organizations I have worked with have been very resistant to hearing any type of criticism or making any changes, which is a big sign that that particular NGO is not the one for me. Free the Children is full of vision and passion and dedication. We are a bunch of people with BIG dreams and every route and possible improvement is taken into consideration and implemented.

Free the Children is the largest network of children helping children through education. It is run by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger and was started when Craig was only 12. I was able to talk to Marc at a staff retreat and was so inspired after hearing him speak. My role is as a Youth Programming Coordinator, so I support kids at schools who are fundraising for the Adopt a Village program (my favourite part of FTC!) and doing awareness raisers. This model is so incredible... It focuses on education by building schools, but also goes on to support those schools in a sustainable way; supporting clean water, healthcare, and alternative income initiatives.

Me to We is the sister program of FTC that sells ethically made shirts, runs humanitarian trips, etc. Check it out! I am possibly going to Kenya this December on the staff trip (still trying to decide for sure). I am so excited about this job. Already, only a week in, I have learned SO much. So like I said, I won't be posting a lot about my job on my blog. I try to keep my personal life off the blog and I focus on my volunteer work abroad and my child sponsorship, and grassroots organizations I support. It will come up once in awhile though, so thought I would introduce the organizations to those who read. I am really, really excited about this opportunity. I somehow doubted that I would be able to pull together my passion for humanitarian aid into a paid job, but it happened! I am loving living in Toronto and am feeling really happy and excited about all that is happening! I have worked with many NGOs and have never come across any like FTC; they (we!) are changing the world in a unique and powerful way.

Go check out Free the Children and Me to We!