FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford has praised the thousands of NHS staff and volunteers vaccinating people for their phenomenal effort as the first milestone in Wales’ vaccination programme was reached making Wales the First Nation in the U.K. to achieve this.

As the final appointments are arranged, Wales achieved the milestone of offering everyone in the first four priority groups a vaccination. Arrangements are in place to make sure no one is left behind – if someone missed an appointment because they were ill or maybe they changed their mind about having the vaccine, a new appointment will be made for them.

Next week marks the beginning of Fairtrade fortnight which this year will be celebrated from 22 February to 7 March. We will be celebrating in a very different way this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Usually I am glad to attend event across the Vale of Glamorgan to promote and celebrate Fairtrade. This year, the Fairtrade groups across the Vale are working together - the Dinas Powys, Barry, Penarth and Llantwit Major groups - on a Vale-wide Fairtrade competition for children and young people.

Young people are invited to share their vision of the world they want for farmers and workers worldwide and for the planet in the form of artwork, poetry, prose or film. I am delighted to support this Vale-wide initiative and want to thank all of the groups who have worked to make a socially distanced fortnight possible. Young people between the ages of and 25 are invited to submit their entries by the 1st March to valefairtrade@gmail.com.

Fairtrade fortnight usually sees thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks, mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes, people who are often exploited and underpaid.

This year the foundation will highlight the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with. The climate crisis is an immediate and ever-increasing threat and those in climate vulnerable countries are already seeing its impacts from droughts and crop disease to floods, heatwaves and shrinking harvests. The Fairtrade foundation works to raise the voices of farmers and workers and prioritise what they need to respond to the environmental crises unfolding in already vulnerable communities. This year they are asking people to ‘Choose the World You Want’ and use your voice to tell others about the challenges that farmers face from climate change.

Find out more here: https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/Get-Involved/Current-campaigns/Fairtrade-Fortnight/