Harrogate Fair Trade's plea to choose face masks 'carefully'

As it prepares to reopen next week, Harrogate Fair Trade Shop says it's more than important than ever to choose carefully when buying reusable face masks.
Call to check what face mask you are buying - Harrogate Fair Trade Shop's Victoria Wild and volunteer Gillian Parkin wearing the reusable HFTS masks.Call to check what face mask you are buying - Harrogate Fair Trade Shop's Victoria Wild and volunteer Gillian Parkin wearing the reusable HFTS masks.
Call to check what face mask you are buying - Harrogate Fair Trade Shop's Victoria Wild and volunteer Gillian Parkin wearing the reusable HFTS masks.

Located at the porch of St Peter's Church in the town centre where it has been for 30 years, the shop is to reopen next Monday after months of lockdown.

With new rules introduced for wearing face masks in a wide range of situations, the shop is keen to emphasise that it is worth checking not only what the masks are made of prior to a purchase but where they are made.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Harrogate Fair Trade Shop's Victoria Wild said: "Everything we sell helps someone to help themselves on the other side of the world, providing a fair income and good working conditions to some of the most disadvantaged people.

"Making reusable cotton face masks is a way of giving people useful work at this time, providing an income to some of the poorest people in the world.

"At HGFT our face masks have been made in Cambodia by a company that mainly employs artisans who have been victims of polio.

"They have switched production from making bags out of recycled materials to making face masks for both the worldwide and the local market.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Some of the tailors had found that they had very little regular work left and producing the masks has given them a lifeline.

"The masks are washable and reusable making them a much more environmentally-friendly option that the disposable ones."

Harrogate Fair Trade Shop - Plea for volunteers

Harrogate Fair Trade Shop is staffed by volunteers and, in common with many charities, has seen its volunteer numbers dwindle because of the pandemic.

it is now actively looking for people with a passion for fair trade to come and help out for a couple of hours a week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

How workers abroad have been hit by the clothing sale slump in the UK - and how fair trade makes a difference

Victoria Wild said: "At the start of lockdown we heard about big clothing companies suddenly cancelling orders they had placed months before, even for items that had already been made.

"This was devastating for the people who make the clothes who suddenly found themselves with no wage and no means of support.

"Many multinational companies feel no sense of responsibility to their workers on the other side of the world.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This is the business as usual model. In the fair trade world things are very different. Fair trade organisations in the UK have sought to make sure the people they work with overseas are not left to starve.

"They haven't cancelled existing orders but instead have found ways to help people to continue to work, including at home if possible.

"Where there is no work available they have made sure people have what they need to be safe including providing food parcels and PPE.

"Working with the poorest people in the world is at the heart of what we do within fair trade.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"The pandemic has shown that when times are hard it is always the poorest who suffer the most. Fair trade is about trying to adjust this balance."

Harrogate Fair Trade Shop will reopen on Monday, July 27, 11am to 3pm.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.