With lots more time being spent at home, many of us have turned to online learning as a way to not only fill time and entertain us, but also broaden our horizons when the world can feel so small. Our Education Officer, Gemma, has been trying out some Fair Trade focused courses and recommends the Who Made My Clothes? course, run by Fashion Revolution and the University of Exeter on Future Learn.
The course runs over three weeks, with learning and exercises to be done in your own time, and is broken down into sections dedicated to being curious, finding out, and doing something. Fashion Revolution and their Who Made My Clothes? campaign came about following the Rana Plaza tragedy, in which over 1000 garment workers lost their lives. They fight for better conditions for fashion workers, a goal which is shared across the Fair Trade movement.
This course is very accessible, providing plenty of useful information with videos and reading, but with more of a focus on taking action (as a consumer and Fair Trade supporter) than some other courses which can be quite information heavy and theoretical.
Fashion Revolution ask you to ask retailers “who made my clothes?” and, as this course shows, often there are no simple answers and no guarantee of workers’ rights. This is an action that we can apply outside of the fashion industry – ask your local supermarket “who grew my coffee?” or “who picked my bananas?” and you might be surprised at their answers.