It's a long way from Kumamoto to the nearest Fairtrade Town. 7389
kilometres south, the port city of Fremantle in Australia. 7675
kilometres west, the lakeside city of Tampere in Finland.
Last month Kumamoto hosted representatives of Fairtrade Towns from even further afar who brought words of encouragement. From Garstang, the world's first Fairtrade Town, in the UK and from Malmö in Sweden an international social movement was welcomed.
A movement that had started in Europe in the 1960's had grown into a global concern with hundreds of towns and cities around the world declaring their communities' support for a different way of trading. Except it hadn't really become global. If you look at a world map showing the locations of Fairtrade towns there is a huge hole with nothing in it. It's called Asia.
This is about to change. On June the 4th Kumamoto will be the first community in Asia to declare it's support for an idea that benefits some of the poorest people on the planet and at the same time hopefully encourages other communities in Asia to follow suit. The hard work begins now.
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