Award for NCL’s Fair Trade heroes!

Lecturer Eileen Imlah and her supported learning students won the ‘Outstanding achievement’ category at the Scottish Fair Trade Awards.

Eileen and her classes have been championing Fair Trade for nearly two decades and they were well and truly celebrated at the online awards ceremony last night.

The Judges said: “the criteria for being nominated for this Award include a consistent outstanding commitment to Fair Trade, continually making significant achievements through Fair Trade campaigning. The winners this year absolutely fulfil these criteria and more.”

They went on: “They were represented at Motherwell’s first Fairtrade event back in 2005! And in the time since they’ve have attended and organised Fairtrade meetings, coffee mornings, fashion shows, presentations and so much more. They have welcomed Kilombero Rice Farmers from Malawi; and a cocoa farmer from the Dominican Republic, and have promoted Fairtrade during COP26 in Glasgow.

This group is doing amazing work using technology to bring Fairtrade to life for the students at New College Lanarkshire. Fairtrade makes a difference to the students and it makes a difference to the farmers and workers they support. This is in no small way down to the dedication and creativity of their lecturer Eileen Imlah and her students.”

Eileen Imlah said she was ‘so proud to accept the Outstanding Achievement Award for me and our students in Supported Learning’.

She went on: “This award recognises the impact our events have in promoting social justice and sustainability through the hard work and enthusiasm of our students as campaigners. Support for our activities has been strengthened by the college embedding social justice in our ethos and by the establishment of the Braw Wee Shop as an outlet for Fair Trade enterprise activities. We hope that the examples set by the Supported Learning Department will inspire other students and staff  to buy and promote Fair Trade."

New College Lanarkshire Principal and Chief Executive Christopher Moore said “It was wonderful to see the tremendous commitment of Eileen and her students from the Supported Learning Department to Fair Trade and social justice recognised in this way.”

He went on: “We are very proud that the education we offer at New College Lanarkshire doesn’t end at the classroom, but helps our students be better global citizens. We recently marked the tenth anniversary of the establishment of New College Lanarkshire and this award is another example of the tremendous difference our staff and students make to life here in Lanarkshire and beyond.”

A million congratulations to Eileen and her class. Click the link to view the short film that tells the story of Eileen and her classes campaigns for Fair Trade if you’d like to know more.