India Shaken by Plight of 13-Year-Old Maid | NYTimes.com
India has more child laborers than any other country in the world (somewhere between 12 to 45 million between the ages of 5 and 14), and trafficking or kidnapping is often part of the equation (32,000 children were reported missing in 2011). Rather than improving the situation, India’s growing middle class has only exacerbated the problem with the demand for domestic workers (1 household in 20 employs an under-age servant).
Child maid servant, India, 2004 Photo Credit: Biswarup Ganguly (I found this picture by doing a Google image search for 'Child Labor in India.' It's a heartbreaking search.)
Form Follows Action with Afia in Ghana | HandEye
Fair trade ready-to-wear collections featuring traditional African prints and textile production and ethically made by local women’s sewing cooperatives: “Afia’s design mission is very much about highlighting the intrinsic beauty of these textiles and the hands that work to translate them into wearable, cross-cultural expressions.” Sound like anyone you know? We’ve found our African soul sisters!
Afias new high waisted shorts being modeled in context
Easy care, easy go? Synthetic fibres are here to stay… | bagsful
The whole recycled polyester v. organic cotton debate is null and void: microscopic plastic debris from washing synthetic clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain.
Synthetic clothes release up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they are washed.
The Fashion Industry’s Perfect Storm: Collapsing Workers and Hyperactive Buyers | truthout
Starting with the epidemic of garment laborers in factories across Cambodia suddenly and mysteriously falling to the ground unconscious, this article delves into the serious labor issues in the fashion industry and the problem with today’s ‘fast fashion.’
Garment workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
In Cambodia, a Start-Up Combines Web Sales Skills and Hair Extensions | NYTimes.com
Fair hair? Two years ago American lawyer Janice Wilson launched an entrepreneurial venture manufacturing natural hair extension in Cambodia, and many of her employees formerly worked in the country’s notorious sex trade or were unemployed textile workers resulting from that industry’s downfall to cheaper competition in China.
Arunji founder Janice Wilson showing a hair extension that is ready to ship from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.