UK MP visits Tottenham Youth Centre with Top Ghanaian Rapper, Tinny

On Friday, 27th November, 2009 Rt Hon David Lammy, MP for Tottenham and Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, visited the Bruce Grove Youth Centre with a very special guest Ghanaian musician Tinny, star of the recent Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk campaign. Tinny performed with the young people attending the youth centre, toured the facility and spoke to staff and volunteers about Ghana and Fairtrade. Many of the young people had recently taken part in a series of Fairtrade workshops and were keen to hear Tinny�s perspective on the impact of Fairtrade upon Ghana�s cocoa farming communities. Cadbury has a long relationship with Ghana stretching back 101 years, where it helped to found the cocoa industry there. The Bruce Grove Youth Centre is located in the heart of Bruce Grove and is currently the only statutory youth provision in the area, consisting of a �3million state of the art building which attracts local young people in the 13-17 year age group from Bruce Grove and across Tottenham and Haringey. Tinny appears in the current Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk TV advert � filmed in a cocoa farming community in Ghana performing his single. This follows the recent Fairtrade certification of Cadbury Dairy Milk across Britain and Ireland, and builds on the work of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, a ten-year initiative launched in 2008, investing �45 million in securing the economic, social and environmental sustainability of cocoa farmers in Ghana, India, South-East Asia and the Caribbean. Tinny�s visit to the youth centre gave him an opportunity to meet young people from the UK who share his passion for music and to hear more about the workshops in fashion, drama, music and dance. Speaking after his visit, Tinny said: �I loved meeting all the young people here and seeing their passion for music and for Fairtrade. It�s a fantastic centre and does a great job giving these kids the facilities to learn new skills � whether that�s about important issues like Fairtrade, music, dance or drama.� David Lammy said �I was delighted to welcome such a big star from Ghana to Tottenham and to help promote the value of fairtrade to young people in my constituency. It was great to see them so engaged in such a positive community project�. Berkeley Gardener of the Bruce Grove Youth centre said �Having learned about Fairtrade in recent weeks our young people were keen to hear how Tinny had got involved with Cadbury�s Fairtrade campaign. Also, as Tinny�s a big star in Ghana it was great for our music and dance students to meet and take inspiration from him.�