Burkina Faso in West Africa has more than its fair share of problems. Regional violence has spilled over from the north and brought refugees with it. It’s seen as a risky country to invest in, making it hard create the changes it needs. 

Swiss fairtrade company Gebana thinks differently. Their mission is to “change global trade in favour of family farmers, local economies and the environment” and this means facing risks head on. They’ve worked in Bobo-Dioulasso in the south west of the country for over 20 years, creating close links with farmers, buying directly from them and giving them a share of the profits. 

Gebana has also built a factory there, where mango is dried and cashews are processed - another way of investing in the people of the country by creating jobs, rather than just shipping the raw product straight out of the country. 

People are often a bit surprised to see that we sell footballs! Perhaps because they don’t fit with the idea of a fair trade product. It’s probably because, like me, they never really thought about where footballs are made, or how. 

In fact 70% of the worlds footballs are made in the town of Sialkot in Pakistan, in a process that still has a real handmade element. Rather than a shiny automated production line you’ll find people machine stitching, or painstakingly glueing pieces together before putting each football individually into a thermal bonding machine. 

All the balls for the major tournaments are made in Sialkot but, as you might have guessed, no matter how expensive the ball, the pay and working conditions really don’t differ much. A big chunk of the price of a branded ball goes on sponsorship and advertising and very little gets back to the workers themselves. Many of them live at a subsistence level with little support when things go wrong.

Did you know the fashion and textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world? Every year, around 92 million tonnes of textile waste is generated globally – barely worn garments, unsold stock and off cuts, much of it generated by fast fashion.

These fabrics often end up in landfill or are incinerated. Some contain plastic fibres that release microplastics into our waterways. It’s a system built on excess and disposability – and it harms both people and the environment.

But there is another way.