OKEHAMPTON College held a citizenship day for sixth form students this month.

The aim of the day was to stress the importance of politics, and how it is important to voice opinions on matters such as schooling, public transport and worldwide issues such as poverty in order to make a difference.

Sue Errington from the Devon Development Education and Nicholas Adjei-Gyan, the research and development manager with Fairtrade cooperative 'Kuapa Kokoo' discussed the reasons to buy Fairtrade foodstuffs.

Nicholas will be spending the next two weeks visiting various schools and social groups to inform the public of the benefits of purchasing Fairtrade products and the positive impact this has for cocoa farmers who are part of this institution.

Kuapa Kokoo, established in 1993, is a Ghanian certified Fairtrade cocoa farmer's co operative. Some 45,000 farmers belong to the co-operative, which encompasses 1200 villages in Ghana.

The money made from Fairtrade chocolate such as 'dubble bars,' and more recently, Cadbury bars sees a percentage being given back to the workers and also go towards benefiting local communities with water pumps and money to aid education purposes.

Helen Chessum and Faud Al Talwill from the Exeter Palestine campaign spoke to the students about the importance of equality and how a difference can be made by supporting local organisations. They talked to students about the situation regarding Palestine and Israel but urged students to make their own minds up about it.

The afternoon ended with 'Question Time,' in the Octagon Theatre which welcomed representatives for the new Central Devon constituency which includes Okehampton on its radius.

Moira Macdonald representing Labour, Bob Edwards for UKIP, Mel Stride for the Conservative party and Liberal Democrat Phil Hutty answered questions proposed by students and members of staff. These included issues such as the costs of local transport, education and environmental issues.