fairtrade and development

Around the world Fairtrade co-operatives and other development organizations work to improve the quality of people's lives, providing access to health and educational services and ensuring clean water supplies and adequate sanitation.
The Fairtrade initiative provides a stable income for farmers and growers enabling them to invest in their communities and plan for the future, from bananas growers in the Windward Islands and cacoa farmers in Ghana and Belize to coffee producers in Uganda and Brazil.

Banana farmers, Estiem Bruney, her daughter Criscia and grand daughter Christina are native Caribs living in the Carib Terriority on the Windward Island of Dominica.

Banana farmer, Criscia Bruney and her daughter Christina are native Caribs living in the Carib Terriority on the Windward Island of Dominica.

Kwabena Manu picking pods on his family farm, Domebra village, Ghana

A cacao farmer carries dried cacao beans home to be put into sacks and then weighed, Domenbra village, Ghana.

Abraham Dyebi, during the cacao harvest, Domebra village, Ghana

Cacao farmers, Yaa, Akuma and Kwabena Monu, Domebra Village, Ghana.

Cacao farmers' daughter Grizela Peck holds a cocoa pod outside her home in the Mayan mountains, Southern Belize

Cacao farmers Justino and Christina Peck with their daughter Grizela at home in San Antonio village in the Mayan mountains, Southern Belize

Narsamura Boya, ex cotton field labourers at the MV Foundation school, a bridge school which fills the gap between labouring and full time education. Kanapakunta village, Dhone Mandal, Kurnool, Andyra Pradesh, India.

Sri Lankan refugee, London

Jumbul Eshmoratova in her home in Kuskaya, Sovietski, Tajikistan.

Head Nurse Firuza Khalikova in the maternity suite at Shartuz Hospital. Shartuz, Biskent, Tajikistan

Women weeding cotton fields. Vose, Tajikistan

Transporting dried cotton sticks for use as fire wood. Biskent, Tajikistan

Zleko Hasanova, Sovietski, Tajikistan

Samandar sits on his donkey, queuing to collect water from a tap near to his home. He makes this journey 5 times a day. 43 percent of the population of Tajikistan has no access to piped water, with nearly 25 percent of the former Soviet republic's population using rivers, irrigation ditches and pools as their main sources of drinking water. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and five years of civil war crippled the country's water supply infrastructure. Kulyab, Tajikistan

Bride at a beautician's shop in Kabul, Afghanistan

The Abu Quaider family, Bedouins in the unrecognised village Al Zarnock in the Negev desert, Israel About 75,000 bedouins who live in this region are in recognised villages, which do not offically exist nor appear on offical maps of Israel.Villagers are deprived of basic infrastructure and services like roads,sewage,running water, electricity, clinics.

Crystal Ferguson and her daughters Annika and Hilary from Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Crystal was one of ten women who took their case to the US Supreme Court challenging a policy of a Charleston Hospital who secretly tested their urine for drugs, they were then manacled whilst giving birth, their newborn babies were then taken from them. The case which was eventually won by the women was a test case for women's reproductive rights with huge implications for American society.

Commercial sex worker and client, Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia

Coffee plantation worker Maria Da Silva with her young son Emerson, Chapada Diamantina, Brazil

Coffee workers at the Gumutindo cooperative in Mbale, Uganda

Children playing in jute crops, Bariatia village. Tangail, Bangladesh.

Children of organic farmers, Bariatia village. Tangail, Bangladesh.

Child labourers taking round water to the rubbish clearers who sort through rubbish looking foranything that can be sold on. Stoeng Meancheay area, nr Phnom Phen, Cambodia

Young girl sorting through rubbish looking foranything that can be sold on. Stoeng Meancheay area, nr Phnom Phen, Cambodia

A prisoner of war in Iran for ten years, groom Ahmed Abraham Abdul Rahman, aged 32, waits with his bride for their wedding picture to be taken. Palestine Street, Baghdad, Iraq.