To refuse to donate clothes to the school?

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

Got a little bag sent home. Please fill it up with clothes, the school will get a few pence per kilo, the clothes will go to the third world and underdeveloped countries.

All well and good you think, but my husband (kenyan) told me years ago about these companies.

These clothes that we give are not always given to people in need, they are often sold to them. The company makes a profit and the local businesses lose custom, which in such countries makes the difference between eating or not.

So by donating clothes, I am actually helping to ruin the business of someone in the third world, AND lining the pockets of a company that pretends to be helping people in the third world

But the school gets a few quid.

I feel so strongly about this that I have now almost stopped giving to appeals for famines and am trying to put any money I donate solely into organisations that help people help themselves.

And I think Oprah's idea about the all-girls' schools is good. We need more of them. We need to educate more women in Africa to a very high level. I truly believe they are the country's best hope and lots of the tribal conflicts would cease if there were more women calling the shots economically.

"And I think Oprah's idea about the all-girls' schools is good."

ermm this is already quite common and has been for years to have "girls" and "boys" schools .

And I'm not sure how famine appeals are in the same league as the clothing schemes??

A famine is generally caused by other factors that all the "helping people help themselves" in the world isn't going to fix. They need food - end of.

and actually just having a "re-read" of the bags2school website - most of their clothes go to Eastern Europe - not Africa.

Hecate - if you school wants a "recognised" business (and Bags2School don't claim to be a charity) to do clothings collections you could recommend them - as the school gets money back as well !

I think it is wrong to charge people in Eastern europe a high price for our second hand clothes too.

but they can't be selling it for THAT high a price if they're selling it to wholesalers who then sell it onto market traders surely?

Hmm, we've just been given a Bags 2 School bag for the first time. Unsure yet about whether to do it (usually take old clothes down to the charity shop) but will read the Oxfam article - thanks.

I agree with FAQ.. I use bags2schools for clothes recycling at my PTA.... They are trying to be an ethical company and are working with Defra on this.
I know there are down sides to this kind of recycling but we've had a real push on sustainability and recycling at our school and there has to benefits in bring that into general consciousness

There are loads of second hand clothes shops here in Budapest that specialise in English second hand stuff. They even have the brand names on the windows - Dorothy Perkins, Next, Gap etc. I suppose this is where the stuff supposedly for Eastern Europe goes.

Presumably what happens is schools in UK collect bags of clothes from parents, the company buys the bags from the school and then sells them on to someone here in Budapest for instance and they are then sold on as 2nd hand clothes to local Hungarians.

School gets some money
Company gets some money from organisation here in Budapest
Hungarians get to buy good quality clothes at reasonable prices and there are people employed in the shops.

Not all bad surely? Or am I just totally naive?

It's controlled by companies here they cream off most of the money

they keep the people dependent on them for the products instead of each country producing its own goods, setting its own prices and being able to trade fairly, which would lead to more propserity than dealing in second hand clothes shipped over and sold on, with most of the cash going back to the uk company!

and the biggie - it is worded in such a way as to make the people who donate believe that they are giving things to people in third world or underdeveloped countries.

I would rather give them to a charity shop. I have always been a bit doubtful. The school makes a miniscule profit

propserity?

prosperity.

and the extra ^s.

but Hecates the sad fact is that I think tbh it's too late to save the textile industries of most countries - if these 2nd hand clothes weren't sold onto Eastern Europe - they'd buy their cheap clothes from China.......just the same place that all our clothes (mostly) come from.

When I lived in Zim I bought clothes in lots of the local shops (new clothes) - none of them were even made in Southern Africa, let alon Zimbabwe.

And tbh I don't like giving my clothes to most charity shops either, raked through by volunteers to get the "good" stuff, then sold for (in most of them) ridiculously high prices - the cost of which is equal to those that can be bought new in the "cheap" clothes shops, and then a questionable amount of the money made actually going to the charity work rather than admin.........

20p per kg isn't bad - and I know the Junior school then sends the money it's made onto a charity of it's own choice.

On the basis of OP alone.... what I did with something I didnt like at school ( nestle token thing) was send in a note explaining why we wouldn't be doing it, but include £10 for their funds instead.

No loss tos chool, but maybe a bit of education.

It worked at Infants with the shoeboxes as well IIRC- they joined a different non worrying group.

That's the difference with bags2schools Hecates. They very clearly state on their website that they are not a charity here

We have the bags2school thing and I thought the clothes were given to people abroad who had nothing and the school got funds from the weights of the bags.
How can it be right to charge people with nothing or very little for passed on clothes?