Social enterprise through fair trade, 2019 – 2020

National Star has been working with Joyland Special Secondary School in Kisumu, Kenya, in a British Council Connecting Classrooms programme to develop skills and awareness between students with disabilities on social enterprise and fair trade.

The project was designed to enable students to create craft items which will be exported to each partner school. Students will learn about the products and how they are made, reflecting each country’s cultural heritage. Teachers from each partnership school will travel to each country with the products made by students. Enterprise classes will be delivered to the students in each school to price the items for sale, create a sales display and to secure a market stall in the local community. The aim is that students will be able to talk to the community about their school, their disabilities and how social enterprises, such as the making and selling of local craft items,  can support people with disabilities into self-employment.

Students from National Star at Hereford decided to make glass coasters, keyrings, earrings and ornaments to represent Herefordshire. As a result, items containing images of Herefordshire cows, apples and pears were made. The students prepared information about Hereford from which the Kenyan students could learn to be able to talk to the community about. Teacher Rebecca Perks visited Kenya in October 2019 to hold classes with students and sell products in a market stall in Kisumu town at the end of the week.