Fairtrade Fortnight Marked in Melbourne

To mark Fairtrade Fortnight the Archdiocese of Melbourne Office for Justice and Peace (OJP) joined with ACRATH to hold a Fairtrade morning tea to raise awareness about modern day slavery. OJP and ACRATH are founding members of the Victoria-Tasmania Catholic Modern Slavery Taskforce, intending to ensure that policies, practices and procurements of the four dioceses in Victoria and the Archdiocese of Hobart are free from modern slavery.

‘Since 2008, we have witnessed an incredible success in moving chocolate companies towards producing only ethically sourced chocolate products,’ said Christine Carolan, National Executive Officer of ACRATH. ‘We can be proud of our success, but we still have a long way to go.’

‘We have a working group within the Archdiocese called the Modern Slavery Taskforce,’ said Mark. ‘We’re trying to eliminate the scourge of modern slavery right throughout the Archdiocese: schools, hospitals, charitable organisations, parishes and here at head office. And it begins with something really small like tea and coffee,’ he said.