An ethical opportunity for you all!

Exciting (and late notice) news for you all: I have an opportunity for you to do some ethical shopping! I knew you'd be excited by this; I am at least.

Tomorrow evening (Monday) I am sharing some of my gap year experiences and you are all invited! It's at Thornbury Baptist Church at 7.15pm in the Youth Block/ Upper Lounge. As much as I want to tell you some of what the ten months I spent away from home entailed, I'm also giving you an opportunity to get involved in two of the projects that I love deeply.

We've been away on holiday this week in Cornwall and got home Friday evening. In typical delivery style, my package full of Sak Saum beauties was delivered Friday morning. Fear not, as it is now here and ready for you to buy tomorrow evening. Sak Saum is based in Cambodia and do such wonderful work with local men and women, giving them hope, skills and a future. These products (bags, purses, hair accessories, scarves and the like) are a way for them to achieve those things, giving them dignity and freedom. I am so very excited to be able to show off these beautiful things to you and for you to be able to spread the news further through your purchases. Here's a taster:

The other ethical delight available tomorrow comes from Uganda, from the Acholi Quarters where I spent a couple of months this spring. Many of the women there now make paper beads as a safer means of income than breaking rocks in the quarries, and these beads make gorgeous products! I don't want to give it all away now or I'll bore you if you come along tomorrow, but they are all made from reclaimed, re-used paper and it's a brilliant example of restoration of the unwanted. Another sneak peak for you:

I really hope you can make it tomorrow: 7.15pm (for a 7.30pm start) at Thornbury Baptist Church. Let me know if you need directions, or if you can't make it but are interested in these products. It would be lovely to see you there. And, if none of this is tempting enough, there will be home-made and Indian-made Indian delicacies!

A week ago today

I've been meaning to write this for a week, but reading lists, packing, holiday and other bits and bobs have gotten in the way, so I'm afraid it's a bit late. However, my lack of organisation has actually paid off for once as this post about my attempt at ethical shopping is nicely coinciding with the end of Organic Textiles Week! How (almost) topical am I?

Last Wednesday, I braved The Mall again with a focused mission. Rozzie and I had a film to watch (If I Stay - thoroughly recommend it. I was an emotional wreck for the majority of it, but a good cry always does the soul good, and it's a pretty challenging story which I got some deep metaphors for life from) and I had an outfit to buy. In just two and a half weeks I'm off to uni. It's all quite daunting as life back in England is still hard to adjust to, without another culture shock of living in Oxford on top of it. Anyhow, alongside all the standard 'new student shopping' I'm slowly doing, I have an added extra of needing 'subfusc'. Don't worry, I had to Google it too! Subfusc is Oxford lingo for what I have to wear under my gown for matriculation and exams etc. - essentially black skirt/ trousers, black shoes and white shirt (who knows how that became subfusc!). With how my last window shopping experience turned out, I was not looking forward to tackling this required shopping spree, but armed with research and my wonderful sister, I tackled it. And I succeeded!

Two days before taking on The Mall, I did a sweep of our numerous charity shops in Thornbury, checking for black skirts and white shirts. I must admit, I have always been a charity shopper, but since my ethical dilemma, they have taken on a whole new necessity. How can you beat buying a second hand item of clothing?! The shops never put out tatty, poor quality rags; they check them and only sell the ones which are decent. You can even find clothes with their original tags still in! It's one up from recycling, you're sparing land fill and you spare your wallet too. The profits go to good causes, you get a good quality, almost-new top and you didn't have to go near the consumer trap of shopping centres. It's perfect! St Peter's Hospice came out on top with a black skirt in my size (which wasn't too hideous either), so I could check one thing off my list before even leaving town. From now on, when I know I need something specific, I will always check the charity shops before I head to any other retailer.

Having a set list of what I needed when I faced shop after shop after shop helped no end! In the little research into ethical shopping that I've done to make my own rules of shopping, I found that Marks and Spencers, Zara and H&M are the top of the high street brands according to the much trusted people at Ethical Consumer (http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/how-ethical-high-street-clothes) so they are on my OK list. My general order to buying clothes goes: charity shops first, then ethical brands and then M&S, Zara or H&M as needed. In my subfusc needs, charity shops helped for some, I tried my favourite ethical sites but didn't have any luck, so then went to the better ones on the high street. Suffice to say that M&S has white shirts and black tights so my conscience is reasonably content.

And now for my favourite ethical sites! People Tree is heavenly and I love when I can justify a buy (which on my student budget is rare, very sadly; www.peopletree.co.uk). In fact, last night, as we watched a mediocre play at the amazing Minack Theatre (an outdoors theatre set into the cliffs in south west Cornwall with the sea as the back drop where a pod of dolphins totally stole the show!!), a People Tree hat was protecting my head from the chilly gale-like winds. I found black skirts and white shirts but being 'tiny' (as Rozzie frequently describes me) it's hard to find ones which properly fit. There is also Annie Greenabelle who is great for more teenager-y clothes, especially dresses (www.anniegreenabelle.com), and they're British! Finally, to warm your toes, Toms are just gorgeous (www.toms.co.uk). They do this great thing where for every pair of shoes you buy, they give a pair to a child in an impoverished place who doesn't have any shoes. Walking around in the African sun and seeing a child with a pair of Toms is just beautiful and makes me even more excited about their shoes! Thanks to them, I have black shoes to finish my subfusc outfit, which is all within my ethical shopping criteria.

So there you go. Now, I'd be the first to say that my ethical criteria aren't perfect! I know that. But, I'm also exploring how to live ethically and it is not easy! This is the best I can do at the moment, and it is a lot better than Primark and Asda.

The Mall has changed my life!

I know it's been a while since I've written anything here... over a month, I guess, as I haven't done anything new since being in Africa. Has it really gone so fast? My first month of being back in England has been a mixed bag - of course I love being back with my family and friends and I must say I am enjoying hot proper showers and having decent cakes to eat! But it has been a struggle living in the West again. It still is; I thought it would get easier, but in a way it's getting harder. The guilt of enjoying hot showers and using a washing machine has reduced; other things keeping confusing me daily!

On Monday, I went to The Mall for the first time since coming home (our local out-of-town shopping mall). Ironically, on my first day back I was in one at least three times the size when we went to meet up with Rozzie in Manchester, but it didn't hit me then. On Monday, it was like someone had punched me in the stomach. And that's why I'm writing this, because I can't get it off my mind and it is still making me so angry and so sad whenever I think too deeply about it. 

The first thing I noticed was how rushed everyone was - running from shop to shop, mums trying to get back to school stuff for uncooperative kids, gangs of teenagers seeking out the newest trend at the lowest price, dads trudging behind whichever female relative was forcing him through his very own hell on earth. When did we all get so busy? Why are we so busy? No one noticed me, no one made eye contact with me. I have struggled a load with this unsociable and self-centred culture since returning from the warm, relaxed, extreme friendliness of Uganda. I miss people talking to you out of the blue for no reason, I miss kids holding my hands when I walk even though I've never seen them before, and I miss how everyone smiles at everyone. And I hate it because I'm so easily falling back into the English way of 'don't make eye contact'! I can walk around my town and not smile at anyone; I'm doing my best not to, but if people don't look at me, I don't make the effort. Why are we like this? We're so bundled up in ourselves and our problems and our schedules and our to-do lists that we forget everything around us, even though there is so much to smile at, be thankful of, and bring joy to. I challenge you to think about it. I'm sure some of you can't relate at all, because you're so extroverted and friendly, and good for you, keep it up! But can we all please slow down a few notches and look up a bit more? I promise, it's good for the soul.

For university, I have to buy a specific outfit for certain occasions, so I was on the search for a white shirt and black skirt, figuring I would have to do this someday, so why not today? Because I am so not the same girl that I used to be! I've always thought I was quite ethically conscious and all, but Monday was a wake up call. I was in Next and as I walked down the stairs and looked over the sea of clothes covering their shop floor, all I could see were the men, women and children who made these clothes in less that adequate conditions (this isn't specific to Next, but to the whole generalised fashion industry). And I couldn't do it, I couldn't bring myself to buy something which will make their lives worse by keeping them in those sweat shops. 

This is what I can't get my head around: on the one hand, how do you know that anything is 'ethical' and doing good instead of bad? But on the other hand, how can we flippantly buy things for just a few pounds when someone half my age could have made it? Too many times I've heard the argument that 'at least they're getting some money as they have a job. If we didn't buy the clothes then they'd have no job at all'. I disagree. Surely, if we buy more and more ethical clothes, then demand for them will increase and these ethical companies will expand, creating more jobs to make up for the ones which are being cut by the cheap, non-ethical companies who are having to downsize because demand has decreased. I admit, I haven't done a whole load of research on this, but doesn't that make basic sense? I cannot bring myself to buy a Topshop t-shirt for £10 because I know that it will keep the person who made it in their horrendous job. 

Driving home I was despairing at our world! It's so globalised that you can never completely know where your clothes have come from - where the raw materials were grown, what environmental regulations are/ aren't enforced there, who made the material, who shipped it from place to place, on what pay, under what conditions was it stitched, how old was the man or woman sewing it, how did it get to that shop floor? You can never fully know. I felt lost and helpless and confused! But I've spent the last couple of days doing a bit of research into ethical brands and my hope for humanity is being restored. Seeing all the alternative ways to positively use your consumer power (and it is powerful!) has made me so excited (as well as wince at the thought of how small my bank account already is and the dent ethical shopping will make in it). Yes, you can probably never know everything about your clothes, but isn't it great if you know it's got a positive part to it at least?

And so, I've made a deal with myself about my shopping habits (for clothes to start with) from now on: I will only shop in charity shops or from ethically certified companies. I'm determined. Even though I have never seen a sweatshop or children missing school to sew sequins on a dress, God has awakened something. Maybe having met victims of south east Asia's sex trade, it's easier to imagine a victim of the fashion industry. I don't know. But I do know that whoever made my jumper, or jeans, or whatever, that their life is as equally valuable as mine and yours. It would never be acceptable for sweat shops to exist here, 'employing' teenagers to make garments for wages under the legal minimum. So why do we accept and support it when it's happening in another country? Aren't we all equal? Fully believing that every single human is equal to the next and that we all have worth and value, I can't support the belittling and devaluing exploitations which occur all over our world to provide me with a £4 t-shirt. Can you?

P.S. As I continue to research and explore the alternative and more ethical options out there, I am planning on sharing it all with you, so you can try to shop in a way which will make the world a better place too, if you like!