Workflow Youth Engagement: Youth Panel

Pieter Fourie

Fair Root Estate, South Africa

Pieter Fourie’s journey with Fairtrade started when the farm he was working for got the opportunity to become part of the network. After a few years of experience on this farm as well as attending the first Fairtrade Africa  continental youth convention in Kenya, he became the manager of the Fair Root Estate. This is a wine farm in the Western Cape and the first Fairtrade premium project of Lutzville Vineyards. He believes that through cooperative effort we can achieve great heights for society as a whole

Jonas Meier

Activist in the climate-strike movement, Switzerland

For Jonas Meier, social and ecological issues have been an important concern since childhood and he got involved in the local Fair Trade shop at the age of twelve. In view of the climate crisis as one of the greatest challenges of today, he has been active in the climate strike since the beginning of the movement and in recent years has gained a lot of experience in building local structures for a grassroots movement, organizing demonstrations and, most recently, in actions of civil disobedience.

Malte Gallée

Sustainability Activist

Malte Gallée ran for the European Parliament in 2019 and is the first successor from Bündnis90/Die Grünen. Through his voluntary ecological year in Tanzania and his studies of philosophy and economics in Bayreuth, he grew interested in fair globalisation and cosmopolitan ethics. He believes that regulating trade practices in global supply chains is essential to mitigating the climate crisis. He currently works in fundraising for UNHCR and Amnesty International in Berlin.

Paola Plaku

Project Management and Fundraising Assistant WFTO

With a background in international relations, Paola Plaku, from Italy, is obsessed with inequalities and injustices. She believes that extreme poverty and development are not isolated issues, but that they are global ones that concern all of us. To tackle these issues, she has joined the ONE youth ambassadors’ program to fight extreme poverty and amplify her voice. Currently, she is working as Project Management and Fundraising Assistant at WFTO-E, where she is learning that through Fair Trade, it is possible to have a fairer, more equitable, and environmentally conscious society by prioritizing people and the planet over profit.

Mikkel Kofod Nørgård

Regional Coordinator WFTO

Mikkel Kofod Nørgård comes from Denmark and holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from University of Aarhus in Denmark, where he focused in particular on inequality both within and between countries. He was Junior Project Officer at WFTO-Europe from September 2018, and since September 2020 he became the Regional Coordinator. He represents the roughly 115 European members of WFTO. He promotes Fair Trade as an alternative model for making business, in general, more sustainable and he believes Fair Trade is one of the necessary elements to ensure a truly sustainable future for all.

Delphine Williot

Policy and Research Coordinator for Fashion Revolution

Delphine Williot is the Policy and Research Coordinator for Fashion Revolution. With a background in environmental policy, Delphine Williot is passionate about transforming the fashion industry into a fairer, more equitable and environmentally-conscious sector. Delphine Williot’s work includes the Fashion Transparency Index and an upcoming EU-wide campaign on living wages for garment workers.

Lea Salameh

Graduate student in Food Security

Lea Salameh is a graduate student in Food Security at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut (AUB) with a foundation in Agribusiness. In light of the rising vulnerability amongst the population in Lebanon, especially in rural areas, Lea Salameh’s thesis focuses on “Youth, Economic Crisis, and ‘The Return To The Land’: The Case of Agriculture and Livestock Farming in West Bekaa”. This coincides with her latest professional experience as an assistant project coordinator for the Women Economic Participation project at the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit. One of WEP project outcomes is to contribute to the empowerment of vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian women in Lebanon by providing them with access to technical and soft skill trainings across agricultural and non-agricultural value chains. Working with marginalized communities allowed Lea Salameh to develop an understanding of inclusivity from both an academic and proactive standpoints, as well as gain experience and valuable lessons within her field.

Charlotte Lonitz

FairActivist (Germany)

Charlotte Lonitz is member of the first generation of the FairActivists, a movement of young pupils, students and professionals advocating for fairer trade in Germany, that was initiated by Fairtrade Germany in 2021. She is currently doing her master’s degree in International Development at the University of Vienna (Austria) specializing in sustainable trade and value chains.

As the recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation Charlotte Lonitz has worked with certified coffee farmers in Rwanda which gave her first-hand insights in the working and living realities of smallholder coffee farmers in the Global South. Charlotte Lonitz is passionate about volunteering to raise more awareness about the impact of our consumption on people and the environment around the globe.