Truth about Fashion

Fashion is a concept which not many people know about, and so many misconceptions pop into your mind when you hear that word.

My journey to enlightenment started at the Good Values Club, which is based at Abbey Primary School, Leicester. The Good Values Club is a club that teaches children from the age of five about the five basic human values, which are Truth, Love, Peace, Right Conduct and Non Violence, and how to incorporate these values into our everyday lives. Through the Good Values Club, we came into contact with the Asian Foundation for Philanthropy (AFP), who were running a project called Naitika, which worked with young people to develop projects on Ethical Fashion.

My group consisted of eight young people, aged between 12 and 17, and we wanted to learn more about fashion industry. Each one of us had reasons for wanting to take part in the project and mine was to explore how much the fashion industry is really worth and to learn why the big labels and major fashion companies make so much profit. Turning a simple necessity into a commodity which has been overpriced. From a £20.00 designer top, around 20 pence is given to the garment workers that actually make the top, is this fair? Is this what you would expect from people that consider themselves to be civilised? We care for animals more than we do for people, doesn’t that show something about our true nature?

These garment workers in developing countries are not only being abused by their employees but the corporations that carry out business with them. These workers only get paid 60% of their living wage. Imagine 60% of your dinner plate empty, 60% of your house empty, 60% of your life empty, how would you cope?

So what can you do? Even in the current economical climate we are all keeping our hands in our pockets as inflation increases, the cost of living rockets through the roof but what about the garment workers? Is their cost of living not increasing? We as consumers have the power, we need to pressurise the big businesses to do more, to introduce a fair minimum wage and treat garments workers much better. The big brands could afford to lose 3-5% of their billion dollar profits in order to provide the garment workers with better factories and equipment which meet health and safety standards, to pay them overtime and give them appropriate breaks for their working day.

It is our duty to help the garment workers that work tirelessly day in day out in such bad conditions, so please spare a thought for the garment workers that are making the clothes we wear every day.

Article written by- Hemant Mistry

Image Credit- Blossom Carrasco

The fairtrade world of HAPPINESS

As a member of the Good Values Club I got involved with the Asian Foundation for Philanthropy [AFP] and made a movie called “The Twisted World” as part of the Naitika programme.

The people who work in the fairtrade factories are treated with respect but people who work in the non fairtrade factories are tortured and are forced to work over time with no extra payments. Also they work in unhygienic conditions, They don’t get paid enough, but in the fair trade factories would get the Indian minimum wage and don’t have to do much overtime but get paid for overtime , also you get hygienic conditions to work in.

While working on the Naitika project I made a movie about comparing fairtrade and non-fairtrade factories. We showed the difference in conditions in both factories and also how differently the garment workers are treated.

The movie I made shows how some people are treated well and how some are treated badly. I had a lot of help from some stories example: The Roopa Story, The story of Roopa was basically about a girl who was found dead in a factory because of the threats she was receiving from her employers. They caused her to be stressed about her work which resulted in her committing suicide. Also different kinds of facts about garment workers helped me make the movie .

From the movie that I made I have learnt a lot from it and how we should buy more fairtrade items because it helps the garment workers to earn a decent living. This experience has made a huge impact and has opened my eyes and now I buy more fair-trade items because it helps other people in India and other developing countries to survive and have the basic necessities they need in life and I hope you enjoyed reading my article.

Mohit Mistry, Good Values Club

Fashion - make the world a better place!

Young people come together as one and give awareness to the public on ethical fashion.

The Girls Group from Rushey Mead School was a group that was formed as an after school club and met up once a week. The group decided to do a project on ethical fashion, this project was run though an organisation called the Asian foundation of Philanthropy (AFP).

As a member of the group I had just joined to spend time with my friends but when we started the project I got more interested and learnt facts and true stories on what going on in the world. At the beginning of the project I didn’t know much about ethical fashion and that garment were treated so badly.

Just imagine, where some of your clothes come from the workers get treated horrifically, with no rights, no respect, no freedom of speech, just simply nothing. All the workers are under threat to physical and verbal valance. 80% of the 500 thousand garment workers are women and children. Our Girls Group showed a visual, intellectual and emotional side to how the garment workers were treated in comparison to fortunate factories. Examples of unfortunate factories are in India, Pakistan Bangladesh, China and many more countries.

You as a person and everyone around you should think about where your clothes come from and I know that our country is in a recession and the shops may have low cost products but just think, you wouldn’t want to be in a badly treated garment workers position and that is a fact. Consider where you shop and try to make some time to pressurise garment factory owners to raise the garment workers’ wages but do this responsibly and without violence. Don’t forget is not how you look it’s about where your clothes come from!

Article written by- Shalina Patel from The Girl's Group

Image Credit- Kajal Nisha Patel 

Can Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones Help Stop Sweatshop Abuses?

*ATTENTION*

I just recieved this email from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights

-->Posh clothing retailers across Europe, Australia and Canada allow prison-like conditions at their Chinese-owned supplier factories, Rosita and Megatex, in Bangladesh.

The 5,000 Bangladeshi workers at the Rosita and Megatex sweatshops face routine sexual harassment, beatings, corporal punishment, mass firings and imprisonment under false charges. Workers are cheated of their wages and paid as little as 16 cents an hour. The report will provide you with the documentation.

Corporate codes of conduct continue to fail miserably.

One of the high end clothing retailers is the Dressmann/Varner Group in Norway, which has signed a deal with Mick Jagger and other band members to design a clothing line inspired by the Rolling Stones music.

It does not have to be this way. With the help of Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones, the Dressmann/Varner Group and the other high-end retailers, including BHS/Arcadia Group in the United Kingdom, Peek&Cloppenburg in Germany, Celio in France, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands and the Wesfarmers Group in Australia, we can put an end to the gross violations of worker rights at the Rosita and Megatex factories. Together we can bring these factories into compliance with all Bangladeshi labor laws and with the ILO’s core internationally recognized worker rights standards, including the right to organize. The first step should be a meeting in Bangladesh with the retailers, the workers and the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.

This is not too much to ask.

Please send a brief personal note to the retailers urging them to send senior management representatives to Bangladesh to meet with the workers and the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights in order to guarantee that Bangladeshi labor laws and the ILO worker rights standards are finally respected.


------------Model Message--------------
-->

I am shocked and disturbed to learn that sweaters sold at [INSERT COMPANY/LABEL NAME] are being made under gross and illegal conditions at the Chinese-owned Rosita and Megatex factories in Bangladesh. The 5,000 Bangladeshi workers at the Rosita and Megatex sweatshops face routine sexual harassment, beatings, corporal punishment, mass firings, death threats and imprisonment under false charges. Workers are cheated of their wages and paid as little as 16 cents an hour.

I urge you to immediately end the abusive and illegal sweatshop conditions at your supplier’s factories, Rosita and Megatex in Bangladesh. Please send senior management representatives to Bangladesh to meet with the workers and the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights in order to guarantee that Bangladeshi labor laws and the core International Labor Organization worker rights standards are finally respected.

Sincerely, 'X'

-->Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
(formerly National Labor Committee)
5 Gateway Center, 6th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, U.S.A.
Office +1 412.562.2406 | Fax +1 412.562.2411
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