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Inspiring Women: A conversation with Kemi

Mar 03, 2021

Inspiring Women: A conversation with Kemi

Illustration by Anna Higgie.

Kemi is the first member of the Give Your Best Community in our Inspiring Women Series! Kemi is a mother of four from Nigeria who (along with everything else that was going on in March last year!) was granted her refugee status after four years seeking asylum in the UK. Here, we speak about some of the very difficult and distressing experiences she faced during this time. She tells us about the important work she is involved in supporting various charities who work with people seeking asylum, how she heard about Give Your Best, and the impact that receiving packages from Gifters has had on her.


Interview: Lauren Porter

Editor: Harri Welch

“It’s like living in hell…Even jail is better than being an asylum seeker.”


Seeking asylum in the UK, and as a woman, is something Kemi says she “wouldn’t wish on [her] worst enemy”. People seeking refugee status in the UK are banned from working while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim from the Home Office and left to live on just £5.39 per day. Kemi finds the negative attitudes towards people seeking asylum in the UK particularly upsetting, especially given that many have a strong desire to work and give back to society.


“They see asylum seekers as pests […] they think we are here to exploit the community, to get benefits and to get all the things the government is giving. […] Well, no! We’ve got good hearts! …we’ve got knowledge, we’ve got skills that we can bring to develop this country."


Kemi’s young daughter has a dairy intolerance but the amount of soya milk she needed to buy to feed her was unaffordable on the £37 a week she was receiving. This sometimes resulted in Kemi having to make a decision between either buying food and nappies for her daughter or buying food to eat herself. She was also unable to afford clothes for either of them.


“I would wake up in the morning in the cold,  put my daughter in the buggy, and I started walking around the streets to see if people had dropped any clothes outside—to see if there is anything that fits me or my daughter… I’d pick up the clothes, go home, wash it and wear it for me and my daughter. Because it’s not possible – you’re getting £37 a week…”



A four year wait


For four years, Kemi waited for a decision from the Home Office on whether she was to be granted refugee status – four agonising years of rushing down to meet the postman every time he delivered a letter, not knowing when, or if a decision would ever come. Not receiving an answer either way was especially distressing; Kemi reflects that if her asylum claim had been denied, she would at least have been able to begin an appeal process to progress the situation. Instead, she was repeatedly told that a decision would be made in the next six months—for four years


“I couldn’t sleep. Every day I was thinking ‘When? When?!’ For four years. (….) imagine someone staying somewhere for four years without doing anything: you can’t work, you can’t do anything...for four years!”


Looking back now, Kemi feels as though those four years of her life were ‘wasted’, especially as she couldn’t work or gain any professional experience during this time. Since being granted her refugee status and finally being able to apply for jobs, she has been told that she doesn't have enough recent experience, and that her voluntary experience doesn’t count. This creates additional barriers to settling in the UK and starting her life here.



The benefits of helping others


Kemi felt a sense of despair and frustration for two years before she started volunteering at various charities. Offering her time in this way to help and support offers has a significant, positive impact on Kemi’s mental wellbeing, and gives her a sense of belonging and motivation.


“Before I started volunteering, I was left alone, nobody [knew] me. I [found] out that when you go out and do other things for people, you feel fulfilled. You feel as though you are alive. [...] Whereas before… you’re just stuck at home doing nothing. It’s like something pushing you to continue…that you can still make it! 


Kemi is now involved in incredibly important work supporting other people who've gone through similar experiences to her. She volunteers as a service user representative for a charity supporting refugees and people seeking asylum, where she is now a Trustee. After being provided with mental health support from Doctors of the World, she also started volunteering with them as part of their advisory board. As part of her work for them, she raises awareness among other migrants and people seeking asylum that they are able to register with GPs and signposts them to health advice and support. She sees this as essential work as she is aware that there is a lot of misinformation and rumours that can affect people who may think that seeking health support could affect their asylum claim. 


“The kind of person I am is when you do good to me, I like to pay it back and pay it forward. […] The problem is a lot of asylum seekers are not aware of their rights and the services available to them. People don’t know anything! They don’t know what they can apply for, they don’t know how to get the things they need. A lot of them are dying in silence.”


Kemi also shared her experiences as part of Refugee Action’s Lift the Ban campaign, which is advocating to overturn the government’s policy to give people seeking asylum the right to work in the UK. As part of this, she was interviewed for an article by the Economist. She was also interviewed as part of Ben & Jerry’s Waiting isn’t Working campaign, where she shared her story


While Kemi is glad she is now able to work in the UK, now she has been granted her refugee status, she does not understand why the decision took four years to complete. Throughout this waiting process, she felt as though she had been forgotten about – as though her application had been put to the side without being reviewed. 


“The long, long waiting time for the Home Office to make a decision is too long! […] The main reason I sought asylum is the reason they gave [refugee status] to me. Nothing changed, so why didn’t they give it to me at that time?! By now, I would have been settled!”



Much to be proud of


Despite the challenges she faces in her own life, Kemi reflects on the things that have made her feel proud over the past year. The main thing, she tells us, is the impact she has been able to have on other people’s lives.


“The thing that [has] made me proud is the impact that I have made on people’s lives. Even though I am still struggling, I know I have made an impact in so many people’s lives in the UK with the little I have.”


In our conversation (as well as in the interview she took part in as part of the Leave Home, Save Lives campaign, run by the refugee employment support charity, Breaking Barriers), Kemi tells us about how she single-handedly set up a series of informal classes at a food bank coffee morning, teaching women to braid their own and their children’s hair. On the small amount of money she was receiving a week while she was seeking asylum, Kemi began going to a food bank to get food for her and her daughter. After a while, she asked one of the women attending the coffee mornings whether she would be interested in Kemi teaching them how to braid hair. 


“As an asylum seeker, it’s expensive to go and do African hair and she [didn’t] know how. And I said ‘If I teach you, would you want to learn?’. She said she’d been looking for somebody to teach her, but she [didn’t] have money.” 


The food bank team were happy for Kemi to set up a weekly stall to teach the women who came along. The classes grew more and more, eventually becoming so popular that she had to recruit other volunteer women to help her run them! Since lockdown, Kemi has run the classes over Zoom. She feels that these activities in people’s lives go a long way.


“Just little things, people appreciate a lot, that really goes a long way for people’s lives (…) it gives people purpose to live. I’m the kind of person that [does] things and when I see [that it makes] people happy, it gives me joy and my heart is filled with joy that I’ve done something positive today.”



Give Your Best…job interview clothes!


After Kemi was granted her refugee status, she started applying for jobs, as refugee status permits people the right to work in the UK. She was invited for an interview but did not own any interview clothes. Someone she knew through Refugee Action told her about Give Your Best, so she sent us a message explaining her situation.


“To my surprise, they sent me three clothes! They just asked me for my size, and they sent three, beautiful clothes! […] From then, I was told I could shop, if I [saw] anything I wanted, and it has really been amazing. Now I can dress properly like a human being.”


Receiving the packages from Give Your Best Gifters makes Kemi feel happy and hopeful: that there are people who care for her and other women in her situation. Receiving the personal cards (and sometimes little treats from Gifters) means a lot to her, and she especially loved the surprise Christmas present she received through Give Your Best’s Christmas gifting campaign, Gift Your Best!


“Sometimes when I open the things I receive, I cry…I appreciate everything. Not just the clothes, in every [package of] clothes I receive, there’s a card. Every time I open that card, the card is talking to me…You think it’s small but it’s not small, it’s going a long way. And as soon as my daughter hears there’s a package coming, she’ll say “Mummy, there’s going to be chocolate inside!” Because there’s always chocolate inside!”



“There’s still love out there.”


Kemi feels that organisations and initiatives supporting refugees and people seeking asylum, like Give Your Best, have a significant and positive impact for people living in these difficult situations. This is especially important when women in these circumstances are faced with racism, xenophobia and being accused of being ‘lazy'—despite not being legally allowed to work while seeking asylum—or people simply not believing in their reasons for seeking asylum. Unfortunately, and sadly, some of these women may also face violence: one of Kemi’s neighbours who was also seeking asylum had a brick thrown through her front window.


“We heard people say: ‘Go back to your country, you are here for our benefits!’, insulting us […] They think we are lazy. We are not lazy! And also, when you tell people your story, they think you’re telling lies. They don’t believe us. […] I have a very comfortable house back home in my country. I’ve got so many things of my own but for me to flee that home and come to this place, you should know that there’s a reason for me to come! 


[…] Give Your Best doesn’t know what they’re doing for refugees and asylum seekers. To you, you think you’re just giving to people, but you’re giving us hope! That we can still make it! […] You feel that somebody still loves you, even if you don’t know that person, you don’t know whose clothes you’re wearing, you don’t know whose chocolate you’re eating but someone out there still cares about us!”


Hope for the future


In the future, Kemi is most looking forward to her other children coming and living with her in the UK, as they currently live back in Nigeria and she has not been able to see them since 2014. She is also eager to secure a good, sustainable job to feel more settled. She is especially excited to have the freedom to live her life the way she wants. Her main hope is for people in the UK to recognise and appreciate the things they have in common with people seeking asylum:


“I want them to know that we are just like them…we are human beings; we have blood in our veins [too].”



**Kemi is currently job searching in the charity sector, if you have any leads you can send us a message via our

Contact Us page and we will pass the message to Kemi.**

by Soledad Escobar 15 Apr, 2024
Last month marked a watershed moment in Give Your Best history — we went to Parliament! Alongside Baroness Hayman of Ullock, we hosted a roundtable discussion in the House of Lords on clothing poverty and fashion industry waste to a room of MPs, fashion brands, activists, and journalists from outlets including Vogue and Business of Fashion. Our goal? To better understand the biggest hurdles fashion brands face with their clothing waste so we can create solutions that clothe as many people in need as possible. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not really. Clothing poverty is a huge issue in the UK. According to a 2021 Sharewear study, an estimated 5.5 million people are currently experiencing clothing poverty in the UK (which means when they are unable to buy two or more pieces of essential clothing). That’s almost 13% percent of the population and Covid-19 only made matters worse. Oxfam saw its online orders increase by 111% in 2020 compared to the same month the previous year, while clothing prices continue to rise. Why then, when there are so many people in need, does the UK continue to send an estimated 23 million garments to landfills each year? Why is 25% of global fashion waste incinerated? Why do most of us have closets full of clothes we don’t wear? And why are we still conditioned to consume, consume, consume by an industry characterized by overproduction but offered no real responsible way to dispose, dispose, dispose? It’s a mess, to put it bluntly. But change is coming. And we’re part of it, as are you. Over the coming months, we’ll be diving deeper into the work that goes on behind the scenes at GYB and the changes we’re hustling to make. Until then, here are the four main takeaways from our roundtable discussion that we think are important to share with you. We Need to Talk More About Clothing Waste & Poverty There is still widespread mis- or lack of understanding of what constitutes clothing waste and how huge the impact of this waste is. Additionally, the level of clothing poverty experienced in the UK, as outlined above, is rarely discussed. At Give Your Best, we’re always asking: Why, when fashion always talks about “reuse, recycle, repurpose,” is redistribution always left out of the conversation? And, more to the point, as Mother of Pearl’s creative director Amy Powney queried, Why does clothing poverty persist in the UK at all? In addition to discussing the need for taxation, Powney proposed introducing clothing education in schools, which would help to shift perspectives and understanding as well as drive action. The UK Is Lagggggging Behind EU Regulations As anti-greenwashing and responsible production legislation shifts across the EU, countries are implementing laws that require brands to take EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) very seriously. They will become fully responsible for the entire lifecycle of textiles and there are large penalties for non-compliance. France, for example, is currently writing in a €10 per fast fashion item tax which will be fully actioned by 2030. In the UK however, as Fashion Roundtable founder Tamara Cincik pointed out, there haven’t been any significant governmental conversations about EPR. Taking action here is paramount. Mental Health Impacts of Clothing Poverty Are Monumental The mental and social impact of clothing poverty is profound. Our guest, fashion psychologist Dr Dion Terrelonge, highlighted many devastating consequences of clothing poverty including negative impacts on education, employment, and social integration. A lack of access to clothing (particularly to clothing that you have chosen yourself) adversely impacts mental health, self-esteem, dignity, and confidence. In other words, all levels of well-being and self-actualization are negatively affected by clothing poverty. During the roundtable, our spokeswoman Kemi Ogunlana shared how having access to clothing and choice through the Give Your Best platform not only gave her dignity but made her feel like a “whole person and not just the sum of [her] problems.” Collaboration Is Key There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. Working together is vital if we’re going to make a positive impact — to stop overproduction and modern slavery and clothe people in need. The government will benefit from working with fashion brands, retailers, and NGOs like Give Your Best to understand the biggest hurdles and help us implement actionable solutions, while industry players will benefit from having solutions to choose from that enable them to produce (and dispose) responsibly. As the saying goes, we’re better together. As always, if you have anything to add or would like to work with us, please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you: partnerships@giveyourbest.uk
by Sahresh 19 Oct, 2022
First of all to the whole team of volunteers (You are amazing) I met all and felt love and warmth. Sol is a star, she hugged me and my son when I met her first time that melted my heart. A big Thank you to all the donors without them nothing could have happened. I came to UK from a warm country with my two year old child, in my bag I just had his nappies, some formula milk and few clothes for him. I was not prepared for the harsh weather not even for my son. I was wearing slippers when I arrived. I never experienced the cold weather before, I used to get very stressed about having to buy so many things for my self and for my son to keep us warm in the cold winter. I had no money and my weekly allowance from home office was not sufficient even for the necessities. On the internet I got to know about Give Your Best, I contacted them and they helped me with my warm shoes, gloves, hat jacket, socks everything. As I have to walk every place to avoid the travel cost that helped me to keep me warm in the winter and I felt at ease that at least one of my difficulties was resolved and I am not cold anymore and I can go out without worrying about feeling cold or my child get cold and get sick. GYB helped me with my journey at University, when I got a scholarship to do my Masters. Amazing team equipped me with data, laptop and right equipment to do my research. They were always there for me in any challenge I was facing in this new country. I felt so confident and not any less when I got dressed up with beautiful clothes and footwear to go to my university. I felt confident and included, not excluded. People couldn't judge me on my looks as I always wear good clothes. I could not have afford it otherwise all these dresses, shirts, pants and shoes if it was not donated to me by the generous donors. I felt welcome by the sweet notes I got with my parcels. Sometime they send me chocolate, tea or face mask, the make me smile and feel so good and was thankful for the people who feel for refugees and asylum seekers. People here in UK are very generous they are caring and loving. Beautiful People. Thank you so very much for all the efforts. Love affection and care, SK
04 May, 2022
If your cupboard doors are fit to burst, you wear only a fraction of your wardrobe, or you just no longer feel like the pieces you have are working for you as well as they could do, then a wardrobe clear out could be on the cards. So often, our default response to falling out of love with the clothes we own is to buy new ones, but we forget a key step before that: assessing what we have already, and seeing if it’s still fit for purpose! But, like so many things in life – a wardrobe clear out is easy to say, but much harder to do. Our clothes can be deeply emotional, and represent so much (which is one of the reasons why Give Your Best was founded). So how do you go about sorting through your wardrobe? What questions do you ask yourself? How do you know what to keep, and what to chuck? And who better to ask than the experts? We asked two brilliant stylists, Leti Marsola, EcoStylist and founder of Outfit From The Heart , and Neelam, founder of Neelam Personal Stylist (who very kindly donated a prize to our recent International Women’s Day auction) for their expert advice on performing a wardrobe clear out. Drum roll please… Before you start your wardrobe clear out, work out what you want from your clothes Before the wardrobe clear commences, you need to work out what you’re looking for: your own personal style, if you will. Leti explains: “Personal style is simply the way we dress. If you wear clothes, you have your styles, even if you choose your daily clothes without a specific purpose. When we are conscious about what we wear, that’s when we use clothes as a tool to communicate who we are and why we chose that specific outfit.” Neelam calls these your style foundations. Get to know them with questions such as: “what is your body shape and what styles suit it? What colour season are you and which colours will make you look your best? What is your style personality and what impression do you want to give to the world?” Leti also recommends, “The next thing to do is understand your routine, your reality. Wear clothes that will keep up with your daily activities and adapt your preferences to it. For instance, if, for some reason, you don’t party as much as you did some years ago, it doesn’t make sense to have a wardrobe full of night out dresses. Think about the style of your favourite dresses, and replicate some of the features to items that fit your current lifestyle. It can be a type of fabric, a neck style you can replicate in a top…” It’s also important to “wear clothes for your current body. A sense of style has nothing to do with the size in the label. It has to do with clothes that give room to be comfy, it has to do with fits and cuts. Dressing the parts of your body that you love will help to focus and be kind to your body.” Armed with this knowledge, let the wardrobe clear out commence So, now you’ve got a better idea of what you’re looking for, it’s time to take this knowledge into your wardrobe clear out. As well as keeping your style foundations at the forefront, Neelam suggests asking yourself these questions as you sort through each item. “Have I worn this item in the last 2 years? Can I build multiple outfits from this item across seasons and occasions? Would I buy this item in the shop now?” Leti also suggests considering these: “Why did I buy it? Why am I keeping it? Does it fit me?” Slowly but surely, these will help you work your way through your clothes and sort them into piles. As the piles grow larger, the weight on your shoulders will grow lighter! In an ideal world, of course, these piles would be “Keep” and “Give Away” (well, in an ideal world, we’d love that to be “Give to Give Your Best”! You can read more about how to add your items to our free shop for refugees, those seeking asylum, or with a precarious immigration status, here .) However, there may also be items that don’t neatly fit into either category. “If you have some items that are hard to part with, find storage away from view so you leave more space in your wardrobe.” Leti suggests. “This way, you keep it organised and it’s much easier to build outfits! Plus, if you have an item you love and think it can be converted or altered to something else, by all means hire a seamstress.” Neelam also points to how a little TLC can totally reinvigorate an item. “Could it do with a little freshening like pressing or dry cleaning to make me love it again?” she asks. What are the next steps after a wardrobe clear out? So, you’ve worked out your style. You’ve worked out your pile(s). What next? What to do with the clothes you’re keeping Whether you’re left with the majority of your clothes or you’ve really whittled down the numbers, it’s important to keep taking care of them so that they can have a long and happy life with you. “Remember to love your clothing by storing and caring for it properly,” Neelam says. “This can definitely prolong the life cycle of a product. Think about how you fold/hang the item, how you wash it and dry it etc.” And where you store them matters, too. “Find a system of organisation that suits you. It can be organised by colour, by occasion…” Leti says. And, also: have fun with it! Neelam says “As you declutter, get creative to see how you can build new outfits with the pieces you already own. You’ll be surprised how many outfits can be made from just a few staple pieces!” What to do with the clothes you’re getting rid of Of course, if the clothes you’re getting rid of are in great condition, we’d love them here at Give Your Best. Once added to our catalogue, they’re available for asylum seeking and refugee women and non-binary people in the UK to shop, helping empower them and restore the dignity they deserve to have. Alternatively, if the clothes are heavily worn, then you can check out our post here for what you could do instead. Hopefully the prospect of a wardrobe clear out doesn’t feel so terrifying now. Armed with Leti and Neelam’s expert tips and questions, you can create and curate your wardrobe to suit you. Less time stood in front of your wardrobe scratching your head, less nights spent fretting about what to wear in the morning, with your items going to very good homes where they’re not forgotten about nor taken for granted? Seems like a total win win!
25 Mar, 2022
As we look at the news every day and see it flooded with stories of loss, hardship, and sadness, it can be easy to lose yourself to feeling down about it. However, there is a huge range of things anyone can do to help those seeking refuge and seeking asylum across the world from their own doorstep. Campaign The fight for refugee rights in the UK is far from over, and unfortunately cannot be solely fixed by donations from the generous few. Legislation in this country has been designed to systemically prevent refugees and migrants from making a home in the UK, and it must be counter-acted. Keeping up to date on protests and any demonstrations happening in your area, and joining in to make your voice heard can help bring attention to issues that refugees face. There are a number of resources to help you find local groups supporting the cause in your city, such as: • The Anti-Raids Network – A network of local groups who tackle immigration raids across the capital • Migrants Rights Network – A charity that works with mirgants and refugees to help them seek justice • Watch The Channel – A group who monitor the English & French border control teams to ensure that they help people in distress If you’re still at a loss at how you can campaign to help refugees, it can also be as simple as sharing information on social media by sharing posts from refugee-focused charities, like Give Your Best! Donate Donations don’t just have to be financial. Warm clothes, tinned food and basic necessities can be dropped off at donation points across the country, and a little can always go a long way! There are so many different charities that help distribute items where needed across the world. Distribute Aid , for example, do mass lorry load shipments to refugees in Italy, Calais, Bosnia, Lebanon and so many more. In fact, last year the organisation donated aid that was valued at $2 million. Care4Calais also do amazing work for refugees across the world. The organisation has a handy drop-off map available on their website, so you can find out exactly where to take your donations that will make a difference. Care4Calais take your donations not only to Calais, but directly to refugees in hotels and accommodation across Britain. Give while you shop Our whole lives being moved online can be annoying and confusing. However, it does mean that you can give to charities that help refugees without lifting a finger! Ordering a last-minute purchase from Amazon? Well, if you sign in through Amazon Smile , then Amazon will donate to a charity of your choice for every purchase you make. Simply sign in and select any refugee charity such as Refugee Council as your chosen charity, and for every purchase you make Amazon will donate a percentage of the net price. It isn’t just your last-minute gift buying that could help refugees, but your weekly food shop too! Give As You Live are an organisation similar to Amazon Smile, as they will donate a percentage of your online shopping at Sainsbury’s, eBay and more will go towards the charity. You can even login and see how many donations you have made to the charity over time! From your streets, just down the road or your very own sofa – everyone can help refugees across the world.
10 Nov, 2021
To celebrate Give Your Best turning one last month, we spoke to Give Your Best’s founder, the amazing Sol! While Sol, like many of the women in our community, has lived in and travelled through many countries, she has always been outraged by the fact that her journey to the UK is seen as an ‘adventure’, whereas people who have had to flee for their lives are often viewed (or portrayed by some media outlets) as criminal. With a strong passion for supporting and raising awareness of refugees’ experiences, combined with frustration about in-person relief coming to a stand-still last year, Sol developed the idea of Give Your Best. Read more to learn more about her story, how GYB all started, and Sol’s reflections on the past year!
31 Aug, 2021
In the face of extremely challenging situations, Give Your Best’s volunteer, S, has shown incredible strength and resolve. After experiencing ostracisation from her community and threats to her safety, S left an abusive forced marriage and travelled with her young son to seek asylum in the UK, where she was placed in a detention centre. Thankfully, S is now safe and is living somewhere with her son where she feels settled. She has recently been awarded a Universities of Sanctuary scholarship to study Peace Building and Conflict Resolution starting this year. Her dream is to share her story at the UN to work to identify solutions and act as a positive female role model for women who have faced similar challenges. S feels it is imp ortant that others engage with and understand people’s own journeys and stories, as she believes this can help build awareness and empathy for others. Interview: Lauren Porter Editing: Anna Kerby
05 Aug, 2021
Lockdown wardrobe clearouts Many of us have experienced what it is to be truly bored during this pandemic. Banana bread has been baked, walking routes are well trodden, and Google searches for, ‘what to do during lockdown’ have been exhausted. If you’re like me, you have finally cleared out your wardrobe, something that you have been meaning to get around to for years but have always put off for one reason or other. Last summer, WRAP (2020) - a charity that works with governments and businesses across six countries to address resource sustainability issues - reported that one in five people in the UK cleared out their wardrobe during the first lockdown. WRAP expected this to result in 67 million items of clothing being thrown away or donated. This doesn’t include shoes or items such as bedding, which points to the extent of the rate at which we discard clothes in the UK. As grateful as we can be to Marie Kondo for encouraging us to keep only what sparks joy, what happens to items we’ve deemed joyless? It’s unlikely that all 67+ million items of clothing would be sold successfully in normal conditions, let alone in a pandemic. Most of us can probably remember a time when some of the clothes we’ve slogged to a charity shop have been so questionable that we’ve wondered whether they ever would have actually sold. I’d also be the first to admit that it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve started to think about what happens to the clothes that don’t sell. The costs of donating carelessly Unfortunately, charity shops don’t have a magic wand that can make unwanted clothes turn back into cotton, water or reusable polyester. Donating items that charities can’t use or are unlikely to sell can create a big carbon footprint. Working in a donations warehouse in Calais, I saw piles of boxes of unsuitable clothes waiting to be sent to charities overseas because there simply wasn’t room to store them in Calais. There were enough boxes to fill several large vans. Friends of mine who have worked in charity shops in the UK reported similar experiences: they were told that if the donations could not be sold in a charity ship in a different UK location, the clothes would be shipped abroad. They didn’t know exactly what happens to these clothes once sent abroad, but expected that they’re either donated again to overseas charities or, in the worst case, end up in landfills. The hope is that as many clothes as possible will be resold or recycled, but the pace of fast fashion casts a gloomy light on this. Although the majority of people may donate clothes with good intentions, donating carelessly can have damaging impacts. The air miles clothes consume are enough to make any influencer in lockdown more than a little jealous. In 2019, The Guardian reported that one in three young women label clothes as ‘old’ if they have been worn once or twice. It also reports that 300,000 tonnes of textiles were sent to be burned or dumped in a landfill in 2018. This is before we get to the direct human costs of fast fashion; from the burden it places on charity workers who have to sift through thousands of items of clothes, to the tragedy of events such as the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. Sorting through huge piles of clothes in Calais made me think more about how we donate in the UK. Would someone else buy what I donate? Would my donation provide someone with dignity and respect? If not, if the clothes aren’t wanted by me or the intended recipient, what will happen to them? It may not be that we can always donate or repurpose clothes. Sometimes, they have met their end. What we can do, however, is think about their lifecycle when we decide to do a clearout and, even more importantly, when we go to buy an item. Going forward, let’s think about the lifecycle of clothes and fight our boredom by getting creative with what we can do with unwanted items. What can you do? Give Your Best! Think about what you’re donating - does the charity list it as a needed item on their website? If you’re donating it to a charity shop, would someone actually buy it? Can you make sure the clothes are washed before you donate them so the charity doesn’t have to? Get it tailored or fixed. Before throwing it away or donating it, think about whether you could fix the item or get it tailored to fit you better. You could also turn your clothes into something new and completely different, such as turning a dress into a top, jeans into shorts, or making cushion covers, patchwork, or even just using them as cleaning cloths. Swap with a friend. Is there something in your friend’s wardrobe that you’ve been eyeing up? Maybe they’d like the item you’re going to donate - you could consider gifting it to them or doing a swap if you want to get something back! Shop as sustainably as possible. This can be difficult on a budget, but it’s worth thinking about how long the clothes will last. When you take that into consideration, it may be that spending a bit more - especially on things like sportswear - will save you money in the long run. This way, we can reduce the amount of clothing that charities have to throw away, making the lifecycle of clothes more sustainable.
23 Jun, 2021
This Inspiring Women piece follows World Refugee Day and Refugee Week when we celebrate the achievements, contributions and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. We hear from one of our wonderful volunteers, Basma, who is a 28-year-old refugee from Egypt and a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM) and who sought asylum in the UK just before the start of the pandemic. The theme of this year’s Refugee Week is ‘We Cannot Walk Alone’. In our conversation with Basma, we hear about the importance of those who are refugees or seeking asylum sharing their experiences and how this can make others in similar situations feel less alone. Interviewer and writer: Lauren Porter Editor: Anna Kirby
15 Jun, 2021
This week’s Inspiring Women’s piece is about Sarah and Yusra Mardini. The activist sisters came to Germany in 2015 having grown up in Damascus, Syria and after fleeing war in their home country, they travelled through Europe for a month, finally ending up in a refugee camp in Germany. Sarah, once a professional swimmer, is a cultural Mediator & Interpreter, an activist and volunteer as a search and rescue swimmer, having studied International Relations and Art at Bard College in Berlin. Yusra is an Olympic Swimmer, previously competing in Rio with the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team and recently having qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she is an activist and an author, and also serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugees Agency. Words: Emma Fullerton Interview: Sol Escobar Illustration: Vivienne Leech
25 May, 2021
Inspiring Women: Lara
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