Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Commerce Equitable Erasmus Project

Project Title

Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Commerce Equitable

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

The project « Young Ambassadors of Fair Trade » gathered during three years 3 high schools and 3 NGOs working in the field of fair trade from France, Portugal and Belgium. The objectives of the project were to help with the prevention of early school leaving thanks to a responsible involvement of the young people and to innovative teaching methods centered on fair trade.
Peruvian fair trade cooperatives (crafts and production of coffee) as well as Peruvian schools were also stakeholders of the project.
The young people were enabled to discover the different aspects of fair trade step by step: the notion of solidarity with the little producers, the promotion and the enhancement of the indigenous cultures and their skills, the notion of political advocacy aiming at making the rules of international trade change, the notion of collective emancipation through the building of a social and ethical economy. The project went even beyond, as the young people were enabled to have a critical eye on various topics linked to fair trade: inequalities, poverty, development, intercultural considerations…
Over three years, the young people acquired skills allowing them to carry out their involvement as young ambassadors of fair trade. They participated to various workshops, games, debates in their school; they did many visits and met with actors and volunteers of fair trade organizations. They were also involved in the implementation and the opening of a fair trade shop, and in five mobilities in Europe and one in Peru when they met a fair trade cooperative of coffee growers and a fair trade cooperative of craftsmen.
This exceptional trip to Peru enabled some students to understand the real life of the little producers at the other end of the scale, to put a face to the products, to grasp the complexity of the process of coffee production and of crafts, and the ordeals face by the people who are the first link in the chain. The young people could also meet young Peruvians their age and exchange with them about their project.
All along these three years, the adults and the young people also created intellectual productions: a pedagogical kit about the coffee sector composed of a board game, a video shot by the students; a pedagogical kit for all the schools that would like to start up a JACE group; a portfolio meant to exemplify, assess and record the skills acquired throughout the activities of the project.
At the end of the project, the students were invited to pass on their message, to bear witness in other schools in order to become real ambassadors. To do so, they created various workshops and used the tools during the presentations.
The different activities and the different subgroups who have been working through the three years were prolific. We shall name (even if not thoroughly) a group of young people who took part in a video workshop or shot videos, a group who got interested in advocacy with the help of the European Youth Parliament France, groups of students who led debates and meetings during the mobilities, a summit meeting with Members of the European Parliament in Brussels, young people who managed the creation of a board game on fair trade , visits of local alternatives in Belgium, France and Portugal which question our model of consumption (dairy farmers, oyster farmers, shared vegetable gardens, associations acting in deprived areas…), workshops in the schools involved in the project, in other schools too, an action taken against the Primark chain of stores to give a petition, workshops to think about fair trade, consumer society…
The impact on the young people who got involved in the project could be measured, and helped to fight against early school leaving for some students. The young people who were part of the project took their studies in hand, they gave meaning to their scholarship and made well thought out professional choices for their future. Some young people got more particularly involved and took spontaneous initiatives in certain activities or workshops of the project.
The partners of the project wish to see the energy of JACE continue in the schools and expand in others to create in the future a network of JACE groups similar to the one already existing in Belgium.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 427221,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

OGEC Lycée Technique Bel-Orme & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Institut Saint Roch Theux
• CECOVASA-PERU
• Fédération Artisans du Monde
• Oxfam-Magasins du monde
• Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral
• Agrupamento Escolas de Benfica