News
Tuesday 19 February 2008
International project fights for fairness
A group of students is helping to establish Fair Trade practices in one of the poorest countries on the planet. The Students In Free Enterprise team (SIFE) from Nottingham Trent University has established links with the Bunda College of Agriculture (BCA) in Malawi, in an ambitious three year project to develop a Fair Trade cooperative for local cotton farmers.
Having encouraged their counterparts at BCA to establish an Enterprise Society, representatives from Nottingham Trent University’s SIFE team will fly to Malawi on the 23 February. Whilst there, they will officially launch the BCA Enterprise Society, facilitate training events in Fair Trade principles and free enterprise, meet with local farmers and potential cooperative stake holders and view potential venues for a special conference due to take place in September. The conference will mark the official launch of the new cotton trading cooperative.
Andekuche Chanthunya, a Malawian student studying Law at Nottingham Trent University, will be one of the SIFE representatives making the trip along with the SIFE team president Jonathan Keith.
“I’m very excited about what we’re planning to do. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and we are hoping that our project will really help promote free enterprise for Malawi in the global market as well as allow the country’s cotton growers to compete fairly in an international arena," said Andekuche.
Nottingham Trent University’s SIFE team was established in 2005 as part of an international initiative to help students develop entrepreneurial skills, and make a positive contribution to communities. Having led a number of local projects in and around Nottingham, this will be the first international project that the team has embarked on.
ENDS
Notes for editors:
SIFE - SIFE is dedicated to nurturing the entrepreneurial skills of university students in a way that is both effective in developing their future careers and meaningful to the community.
The students, guided by university and business advisers, form a student-led SIFE team to develop sustainable projects which create economic opportunity for others. Their projects aim to increase knowledge of entrepreneurship, market economics, personal success skills, financial literacy and business ethics. The teams present the results of their projects at an annual National Competition and the winners go forward to represent their country in a Global competition, the SIFE World Cup, and a European competition, the European Symposium.
To find out more about the SIFE initiative at NTU go to the NTU SIFE website
Press enquiries please contact Matt Wallace, Press Office, on Tel: +44 (0)115 848 8785.
Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: +44 (0)115 848 8774.
