Sarah J caught up with Peter Collins, Church Relations Manager for Traidcraft, about fair-trade shopping, campaigning to tackle poverty and praying into the issues.

Sarah: I think one of the things I like about your organisation is that - most of the general public they wouldn't necessarily know that some of these bills are going through. So for you guys to do that research in advance and prepare us to be able to make some kind of response to that is really helpful.

Peter: Well that's kind of you to say so Sarah. Thank you very much. Yes we do take some pride in the work that we do on campaigning. We were the first organisation to spot the danger of economic partnership agreements for example. Now most people I guess, most of your listeners won't have heard of the economic partnership agreement. But these are agreements which are being negotiated in our name by the EU that will devastate the economies of developing countries because it will force them to open their economies to the raw competition of huge industry, agri business and financial services in the developed world. And they'd be powerless to resist it. Those are agreements as I said are being negotiated in our name by the EU, which is the second largest trading block in the world and exerts enormous power on small countries. And we were the first to spot that danger and we alerted if you like the campaigning community to it, and some really big organisations - Christian Aid, Oxfam, and the like fell in behind us, and we led on that. We're proud of our work in the area of campaigning of trade issues.

Sarah: Now if someone was listening and thought, well I'd like to get involved in the campaigning side of things, but I don't ever know when events are coming up, how do I get hold of these postcards? What's the best way that someone can connect to the campaigns you're involved in?

Peter: Well, if you go to our website which is www.traidcraft.co.uk you'll find links to all areas of our activities; including the campaigning. You'll find information about our work overseas: you'll find information about our products on sale here in the UK. And so the best stop - or first stop should be our website.

Sarah: And that brings us on nicely - you've just mentioned about the products that you sell here in the UK. What were your best sellers of 2008?

Peter: Well two of our top sellers were a crochet nativity set from a craft group in Vietnam. And the other is a set of wine glasses from a group in Bolivia. But I have to tell you, our biggest seller of all is recycled toilet tissue. If people want to see what's still available then they should go to www.traidcraftshop.co.uk and place their order.

Sarah: And on that they'll have all the pictures of the different products and the codes and all that.

Peter: It does and more importantly perhaps it also gives the information about each of the producer groups who will benefit from the sale of that particular product.

Sarah: So can you give an example based on one of those best sellers, what impact that has at grass roots level if I end up purchasing one of those gifts.

Peter: Well, almost anything you buy from our rent a gift makes a huge difference to the lives of people who we will never know and never meet on the other side of the planet. But whose lives and more importantly life choices are affected by the choices we make when we spend our money. Selling on Fair-trade terms is being able to afford to send a child to school, to pay for medicine, being able to put a roof on your house. For some it's as basic as being able to have a borehole in your village giving you access to safe clean water for the first time. For others it's perhaps a little more sophisticated; it means being able to invest in your family business, to plan a future for you and your family and to enjoy some security for the first time. So the benefits are many and varied but they are absolutely guaranteed by that fair trade approach.

Sarah: Now say I'm thinking, well all of those things are fantastic I'd love to invest in stuff like that, but actually I don't need a toilet roll and I don't need the wine glasses. You do something called living gifts don't you where I can directly finance some of that stuff? Tell us a bit about living gifts.

Peter: Well the programme is actually called Gifts for Life, and again it's a range of options. One of the most popular ones we had this year is called 'Time for tea'. Now for as little as £10 that would give tea workers in some of the small independent tea estates in India the training and the knowledge that they need to help secure fairer conditions and trade terms. £25 would pay for someone working in the dairy sector in Kenya for example to give them the training they need to influence change within that sector because it is a very important sector to the Kenyan economy, but it's hugely unregulated and the training that we could give to the people working in the sector, would vastly improve their life choices and also the public health of people who are buying the milk. £15 will help someone in Bangladesh get a small business started giving them an independent income for them and their family, and helping to improve life generally in their community. As little as £8 helps someone in India get the help, the training information and resource the market access they need to run their business more successfully. We've got programmes in Cambodia, in Tanzania. We've got them actually in just about every continent of the world. And again if people are interested in these gifts for life, they can find more information on our website.

Sarah: So what actually happens? Say I decide on one of those things. I say, right, I'm going to do 'time for tea', because I know one of my friends really loves drinking tea and I decide to purchase a gift for life. Does the gift come to me and in what form does it come in then? Do I pass it on to my friend, or how does that work?

Peter: Well, what would happen is you would buy the gift from Traidcraft exchange. You tell us who you are buying the gift for and your friend will receive a gift card telling them about the gift and acknowledging the gift on your behalf.