Are human trafficking victims hidden inside your closet? Could be. It’s not your fault, it’s hard to know if your wardrobe is tainted by sweatshop slave labor. But now it’s easy to stop financing the enslavement of women and children in the fashion industry.
Free the Slaves has partnered today with DoneGood, a social impact tech startup incubated at the Harvard Innovation Lab, to create the Fashion for Freedom online store. The new platform empowers shoppers to support fashion brands that pay good wages to their workers and are free of trafficked labor, while also helping to fund Free the Slaves on-the-ground efforts to end modern-day slavery.
As the world recounts the horror of the Rana Plaza disaster, where hundreds of modern slavery victims died five years ago in despicable sweatshop conditions, it’s important to know that there is something you can do. Right now. Prevent the next tragedy. All products—and exclusive discounts—on the new DoneGood-Free the Slaves site are from brands that are members of the Free the Slaves Fashion for Freedom Campaign and have been DoneGood-approved for ethical business practices.
Make a statement for Mother’s Day or when buying high-school or college graduation gifts. Buy something that spreads freedom. On the new online store, you can explore products ranging from women’s and men’s clothes to footwear to home goods and jewelry. Find a women’s tunic made by sex trafficking survivors in Nepal, a fair trade chocolate gift basket for Mother’s Day, and many more ethically-made products.
DoneGood will donate 10 percent of revenue earned from sales through the new site to Free the Slaves efforts to fight human trafficking around the globe.
“Pretty much no one would purchase a product if they knew it had been made with slave labor. Unfortunately, there are 40 million people living in slavery around the world, many of them working in supply chains that produce everyday products we all buy,” says DoneGood Co-founder Scott Jacobsen. “The problem is that it’s so difficult to know if a product is made with trafficked labor. With this new site we make it really easy for people to find products they know are slavery-free so they can feel good about what their purchase is supporting.”
“Human trafficking is a $150 billion a year industry. It’s as big of an illicit industry as illegal drugs and gun smuggling,” says Free the Slaves special Projects Manager Allie Gardner. “Consumers have incredible power to make an impact. Redirecting our purchases to brands we know are slavery-free helps these businesses be more successful and encourages other businesses to do more to ensure their supply chains are free of human trafficking. Nonprofit organizations like ours can’t conquer modern slavery alone, but as more consumers join the effort we can finally eradicate slavery across the globe.”
The new shopping platform launches today during Fashion Revolution Week 2018. Fashion Revolution Week is the world’s largest coordinated global campaign for a fairer, safer, more just fashion industry. The week is held annually surrounding the anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh. On April 24, 2013, an apparel factory producing clothing for major American and European brands collapsed, killing 1,130 people and injuring many more.
What you wear says who you are. So, what if your clothes are sewn by slaves? Fix that. Get modern slavery out of your wardrobe. Check out our new page on DoneGood.
See the official partnership news release here.
