Who are we?

I am a long standing member of Inverness Fairtrade and currently, am Chairperson. 

Originally from Canada, I have lived in Inverness with my family for forty years. Over this time, I have been involved in grassroots adult education and it’s been exciting to work with others to develop innovative approaches to adult and community learning with both the Workers’ Educational Association and now Highland Multicultural Friends. 

Fairtrade can have such a positive impact on farmers and producers in the Global South. Given the challenges of Covid and Climate Change, Fairtrade takes on an even more important role in helping to make trade justice a reality. 

I rejoined the Inverness Fairtrade Group as an active member in 2019, having previously been actively involved in Fairtrade locally in the 1990s as a founder member of the Highland One World Group.

My wife and I are retired doctors, and having lived and worked in sub Saharan Africa for almost 10 years , we are very aware of the impact fair prices and wages have on people’s livelihoods and health.

Fair prices for producers are not only good for them and their families, but by encouraging sustainable agriculture they also help address climate change.

My whole working life has been involved with education – here, for the last 30 years, and prior to that for 15 years in Ethiopia and Botswana.

In retirement, I continue my commitment to Fair Trade as it is such a positive way to help some of the world’s major issues. It brings a bit more justice and fairness to people globally and a lot more care to the planet. We all depend on the soil!

On top of that it is fun, meeting and working alongside like minded people!

I have been the treasurer of the Inverness Fairtrade Group since 2016. I was brought up in Inverness but after spells of living abroad I came back with my wife Hilary and have lived here ever since. My interests in development and fairtrade were ignited by a period of voluntary work in Malawi, and by post graduate study in Canada. My career back in Scotland was in social and community development in the Highlands and Islands, culminating in a focus on community land ownership.

In a period of pandemic impact, changing trading environment, and climate change, the principles of fairtrade have never been more important.

I have lived in the Inverness area for 31 years.  I work at Eden Court Theatre and am a member of the Inverness Justice and Peace group.

After many years of being a consumer activist for Fairtrade,  I am delighted to become a member of the Fairtrade Inverness Committee and look forward to engaging and working with various groups to encourage a variety of ways to create sustainability and work equality through fair pay and safe work environments for farmers and workers around the globe.  

Geographer, educator, environmentalist and social justice advocate. I have a long standing interest in trade justice, global citizenship, and the transformative power of education.

After graduating with a degree in Environmental Geography, I worked overseas in India and Taiwan in the International development and education sectors before returning to the UK to complete a Masters in Environment and International Development, going on to work in Global Education here in Scotland.

I believe that the choices we make locally can have big impacts globally, and that trade justice is key to achieving a more just, sustainable and peaceful world.