Fairtrade Fortnight brings people together across the UK to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks. mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes: people who are often exploited and underpaid.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more than ever how interconnected we are globally. In Fairtrade Fortnight 2021, the focus is on the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Honduras.

To get involved:

You can take part in the ‘Choose the World You Want’ youth exhibition in Fairtrade Fortnight 2021.

Create your vision for the world you want, for the planet and everything on it. Share your artwork, poem, prose or film for a chance for your work to be exhibited in the online Youth Exhibition at the ‘Choose the world you want’ festival between 22 February and 7 March 2021. Email your vision masterpiece to schools@fairtrade.org.uk with the subject line CHOOSE THE WORLD YOU WANT stating your name and age  in the email. Submit your vision by March 1 2020.

Watch here: Change the world through your choices on Vimeo

“May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears”

– Nelson Mandela

In June 2015, the Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill was passed. This made it legal to allow 16 year olds the right to vote in Scottish elections.

Welcome To Your Vote week is a campaign to help new voters firstly understand that they can now take part in the democratic process, and secondly help them know how to take part. The main focus is on registering to vote for the Scottish Parliament Election which takes place on 6th May 2021. Voters must be 16 by this date and the deadline to register to vote is midnight on 19th April.

To register to vote, visit gov.uk/registertovote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3NlwHtpz0k

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27th January each year. This is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Holocaust Memorial Day is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own – it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented.

Scotland’s Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Ceremony 2021 has been organised as a virtual ceremony. The ceremony will be premiered online at 2pm on 27 January 2021. The ceremony features testimonies from Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich, as well as the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of survivors from subsequent genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia. You can watch the Ceremony on YouTube or Vimeo:

• Watch on YouTube
• Watch on Vimeo

Be the light in the darkness.

Today, the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States takes place. This will mark the beginning of the four-year term of Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President. Biden and Harris will take the presidential oath and be sworn into office. The ceremony will take place in front of the US Capitol in Washington D.C. Coverage of the event will take place from 4pm on BBC and ITV. You can also watch coverage of the event here: Biden inauguration live: Washington readies for handover of power – BBC News

Joe Biden is part of the Democratic Party. He was Barack Obama’s Vice President from 2009-2017. At 78 years of age, Biden will be the oldest person to become President of the USA. He won the 2020 Presidential Election with a total of 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 electoral votes.

Joe Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, also made history by being America’s first female, first Black and first South-Asian Vice President.

In Joe Biden’s victory speech he said, “I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide but to unify.”

“A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America.”