OUR VISION : EMPOWERING AFRICAN WOMEN

Each week, approximately 15 million individual items of used clothing arrives in Ghana from the Global North. It’s a flood of textiles and an estimated 40% of the clothes imported are disposed off in ad hoc landfills, dumped on poor communities at the edge of the city or burned in open-air pits with other waste.

Ghana, like many African nations is developing and striving to improve, but it’s not equipped to handle this overwhelming amount of textile waste.

Rethinking Western Clothing Donations to Africa

If countries from the west, with all their resources, find managing textile waste challenging, how can we expect countries to which we ‘donate’ tonnes of clothing to cope?
They’re trying to handle waste they didn’t create, using resources they need for their own development and watching as their environment turns into crisis zones.

Imagine the beaches near Accra, which used to be beautiful, now littered with long fabric strips often referred to as ‘tentacles.’
The sea, once clear, is now filled with clothes sinking to the bottom, harming sea life.Synthetic fabrics are disrupting the balance of nature, silently introducing toxic chemicals and dyes into the water.

On land, the situation is equally dire. Landfills overflow with unwanted clothes, which release methane as they rot.
This highly flammable and explosive gas not only contributes to global warming but also poses a fire hazard, sometimes causing landfills to burn for months.

”The people who depend on nature for their livelihood,
the very ones we think our donated clothes are helping,
are suffering the most from this problem they didn’t create.”

At Preloved Therapy,
we’re rolling up our sleeves to be part of the solution.

We’re determined to help transform African communities affected by fashion waste from fashion dumping grounds to fashion revival centres in two ways:

1. Spotlighting Trailblazers in African Sustainable Fashion.

There are already incredible organizations, brands and people actively working in Africa to combat fashion waste.

They’re one of the unsung heroes in this story, and we’re here to sing their praises. By supporting them and raising awareness, we’re not just saying ‘great job’—we’re amplifying their voices and actively contributing to their impact.

We’re constantly updating our directory, so please keep an eye on it.

2. Joining the Fight Directly.

We’re not just on the sidelines cheering; we’re getting into the game.

To truly move towards sustainability, we need to bring African women front and center, not push them to the margins.

Our ambition is big—create 10,000 jobs for African women affected by fashion waste. Because when we empower women, we empower communities, and we start a ripple effect of positive change.

It starts with channeling more resources into the hands of women’s organizations on the ground, teaching valuable skills and finding markets for their products. They know their stuff; they just need a bit more muscle behind them.