THE CHOCOLATE COMPETITION WINNERS

Read the Winning Poems

Christian Aid and Divine Fairtrade Chocolate are delighted to announce the winners of the third Divine Poetry Competition. Launched alongside National Poetry Day last October, the theme for the competition was “Inspire everyone in Britain to lead the world in choosing Fairtrade chocolate”.
There were more than 2,000 entries, in three age groups, from all over Britain, and the three outstanding winners and six runners-up demonstrate the very high standard and diversity of the poems that were sent in.

Writer and poet John Hegley joined Christian Aid and The Day Chocolate Company (makers of Divine) for the final judging and said,
“I am very happy to be involved with this poetry project. Aiming to make the world a fairer place is a great objective and it certainly produced some excellent poetry. I very much enjoyed reading them, and I think the winners showed great style and individuality.”

The winners were:
(7-11 age group) Robbie Daly.
Runners up - Jade Barnes and Rebecca Haigh

(12-15 age group) Ed Phillips.
Runners up - Aileen Carter and Jack Tomlins

(16+ age group) Kirsty Jansen
Runners up - Lucie Payne and Sarah Hobbs

Charlotte Borger, of The Day Chocolate Company, was also on the judging panel. “We were really delighted with both the quantity and quality of entries. Many schools had run their own competitions and sent us their best poems, often beautifully hand- written and illustrated. We would like to congratulate everyone who entered for the fantastic effort they put into their poems, and we were very impressed with how well everyone understood and communicated the objectives and benefits of Fairtrade. We hope all these budding poets keep on writing, and keep on supporting Fairtrade.”

Younger winners Robbie Daly and Ed Phillips will be receiving packs containing everything they need for a Divine Celebration party for themselves and their school classes. Kirsty Jansen will receive a Book Token for £30 and a month’s supply of Divine. The runners up will all receive a special Divine goody bag.

The Poems

THE WINNER 7-11 YEARS

Secret Fair Trade Chocolate Room by Robbie Daly (aged 10)

I like my room full of Fairtrade chocolate,
It's my room so there,
I like the divine chocolate taste,
Whether I'm standing at my table,
Or sitting at my chair,
I've got chocolate under my bed, under my floor
And secretly I keep Fairtrade chocolate
Sellotaped to the back of my door,
I like it in my cupboard,
I like watching it on TV,
And most of all I like
Fairtrade chocolate in the inside of
Well… me!

RUNNERS UP 7-11 YEARS

Fair Trade Chocolate Is So Nice by Jade Barnes (aged 8)

And a rather low price,
The profits go to Ghana
To help the farmer.

Fair trade, Fair trade,
They all get paid
It is a good cause
Don't stop and pause

Buy some now,
It tastes, WOW!

Divine Chocolate Poem by Rebecca Haigh (aged 11)

Divine chocolate is fair trade
The farmers who grow it are fairly paid
It's creamy and soft with a special touch
It doesn't cost you very much
Every time you buy a bar
The money goes very far
The farmer will have clean water
Will be able to afford education for his daughter
So go and buy the chocolate you love
And make a difference to the people less fortunate than us.

WINNER 12-15 AGE GROUP

Divine by Ed Philips

Hello my friends I am a farmer
Working in the midst of Ghana.
Growing cocoa on cocoa trees
And sending it across the seas

I mark it at a reasonable price
But get rejected once, twice, thrice.
Then, one day, there comes a man
Who drives up by me in a van

He says to me, "What is your job?"
And I tell him my name is Bob
I tell him that I am a farmer
Working in the midst of Ghana.

"I say!" he shouts "What brilliant luck
My job is making chocolate tuck
I'm looking for some cocoa to be mine
To make some chocolate called 'Divine'

Inside a building, it is made,
A company owns the building called Fairtrade
Part of that building is mine
Where I make the chocolate called 'Divine'

It helps poor chaps just like yourself
To raise a little in your wealth
So why not friend? Sell me some beans
I'll pay your price, by all means."

RUNNERS UP 12-15 YEARS

What Does Fairtrade Chocolate Really Taste Of? by Aileen Carter

Fairtrade chocolate tastes like a roof on a family's home,
It tastes like a farmer's pride in what he's grown,
It tastes like managing your own business and profit on trade,
It tastes like a hard day's work that is fairly paid.

It tastes of the smile of a child who can have an education
It tastes like the end of injustice and beginning of co-operation
Fairtrade chocolate tastes like balancing the scales
The deal between Ghanaian farmers and here in Wales

It smells like an end to inequality and unfair trade,
It smells like the bags of cocoa being properly weighed,
It smells like the beans being harvested in Ghanaian sun
And delicious chocolate that benefits everyone!

Just Think by Jack Tomlins (Age 13)

Just think,
How well off are you?
Bet you've got a Playstation 2,
A huge house a huge car,
Your own fallen star.

But just think.
While you prance and play,
People in Ghana just want to say,
All work, no play, no dawn to a new day.
They work dawn till dusk,
To keep the demands at bay.

How can I help?
Do not fret and fray
The answer is simple, get something to eat.
Try your hardest and save many lives.
Just eat Divine bar.

It's fairly made, it's fairly trade.
Probably the best they've ever made.
They get money, you get tuck
It's great which ever way you look!
Just buy Divine….Just buy Divine!!!!!!

WINNER 16 YEARS +

Pa Pa Paa by Kirsty Jansen

This weather-beaten air shimmies like the laugh of a grass skirt
In today's fierce afternoon heat. The Sun bears her teeth,
Licking whitened fire over baked red earth, dry
With dust and flies, and cracking open like the need for relief
Or respite. The blessed bloom of night is some hours away yet,
And the blessing of rain is rare and rich as those distant desert-dreams
That give such sweet, false hope to travellers;
a mad mirage half-seen, unset.

You wouldn't think this land could hold life; a cup too shallow
For support, and holed to let the sly liquid trickle through and dry.
But see? That hazed horizon hides more than the earth's
withered pores -
A plume of smoke winds lazily into the trembling, treacled sky.
A homestead stands on rock, in dust;
bunched huts mud-baked and brave
Amongst the small taut shadows of hunched figures
hoiking food out of the fire.
A village, keen and bright with life
and a strength that doesn't tire,
Or
Cave.

A hard life, perhaps, but look!
These people are not withered like weeds
But tempered by the heat, hardened, with willing ease
to work and thrive.
These browned figures return from fields that hold their livelihoods
In each trembling leaf. For they are their own masters, fine and free
And
Alive

With hope and the cocoa they own. To grow and tend and grade
These ripe rosy buds, to help them spring from flies and flaws
Is this village's way of weaving their own future's course. This is
Fair
Trade.

This is Fair Trade's secret, wrapped in sleek amber like a whisper
Or promise. Take a peek; unpeel the glint and glittering shell of
Anticipation, to reveal…..CHOCOLATE! Smooth as creamed cloudburst
And brown and rich from cocoa grown in exotic lands. Let that smell
Of sweet, earthy airiness stir your senses. Nothing's so good or grown
So
Well.

Pa pa paa…. From distant Ghanaian cocoa fields
the taste comes through
Of these three whispered words, their promise to you. Choose smooth
Chunky earthbound chocolate rich in texture, heart and mind -
La crème de la crème. The best of the best. Pa pa paa…. Divine.

RUNNERS UP 16 +

A Gift of Chocolate by Lucie Payne

From the dark earth
Dark pleasure
In the mouth at midnight
For a birthday, for the ill one
The lonely one.

It heals as it pleases
Brings us back
When we thought
Earth barren and friendless.

To return pleasure with
Fairness we must start
An awakening -
For this gift is not without
Human suffering and labour.

We can deal fairly
Trade humanely and
Without eyes wide open
How can we ignore
The giver of the gift?

Divine by Sarah Hobbs

How beautiful the sight
of fair chocolate

fair play
have your say

how hard the plight
of the workers

don't let things stay
the same way

how Divine the might of change
its time to rearrange.

Well done all the winners and everyone who entered
from The Poetry Zone

To find out more about Christian Aid’s development work, campaigns, read news stories, features, press releases and reports, and view web clips take a look at www.christianaid.org.uk .

For more chocolate information go to:
www.divinechocolate.com

All about Fairtrade Chocolate

Kate Wills of Christian Aid says, "Fairtrade chocolate means we can enjoy the luxury of chocolate and make a difference to the life of someone else at the same time. By paying a little more we are guaranteeing a fair price for the cocoa producers, which ensures they have a decent and stable economic future. It's good chocolate - and good business."

Chocolate in the UK is BIG business, but most Ghanaian cocoa farmers live in poverty and many have never even tasted chocolate. The industry is worth around £3.6 billion a year, although cocoa farmers in countries like Ghana see barely a fraction of this because the present structures of international trade are stacked against the poorest. Fairtrade is one way of ensuring that producers get properly paid for their work and can therefore plan better futures.
Both the Fairtrade Foundation and Christian Aid are part of Trade Justice, a movement of organisations campaigning for a chance to the current trading system with the rules weighted in favour of more of the world's poor.

Divine chocolate carries the Fairtrade Mark, which is an independent
guarantee that the bar is made from fairly traded cocoa. This means that farmers are ensured a fair price for their produce that at least covers their costs of production as well as long term trading contracts and minimum health and working conditions. In a first for Fairtrade, the farmers who grow the cocoa for Divine also own a share of the Day Chocolate Company (who market Divine in the UK) so they have a say in how the chocolate is produced as well as share of the profits.

Could I read that again, please?