This three-part series raises thought-provoking questions about women artisans in the developing world who are survivors of human trafficking and other travails. These hard-working women artisans are striving to succeed—but their success depends on us. They need a market.
For more, see part 1 and part 3.
In recent years, we’ve gotten used to seeing news about the horrors of sweatshop labor, and of tragic accidents in unsafe factories. Events such as the Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza collapse, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Bangledeshi factory workers, momentarily capture our attention, only to fade from society’s collective conscious.
But for the thousands of garment workers suffering from workplace cruelty, unsafe conditions, and low wages, it is impossible to forget. For them, it is not a news story, but an everyday reality.
Most of the clothing sold by large retailers is made in developing countries where work conditions can be dire: employees do not receive a living wage and endure threats and abuse from supervisors. The environment suffers as well—dangerous substances and dyes used in garment production pollute the air and water. The environmental impact is so staggering that fashion is the second highest polluting industry in the world (second only to the oil industry).
