Who makes our clothes & The Rana Plaza Factory Collapse. Activity:Writing a letter to Amancio Ortega

Most of our clothes are made abroad in third world countries because it is cheaper to produce our clothes there. Because third world countries are poorer this means that it is cheaper to buy material from there.

There are no workers rights like in Ireland which means that the workers who make our clothes are often paid very little money for their work. Mostly women and children make our clothes. They are paid as little as 50c a day and they often work more than 12 hour days. Because they live in poor countries such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka China, and the Philippines they often work in old factories which are often unsafe. There are also too many people in the buildings which makes it overcrowded and very hot. The women are often treated poorly and are not allowed to take many bathroom or lunch breaks. Children often work in the factories to make our clothes in order to make money because their family are too poor to afford food. This means that they children do not go to school because they can't afford to and they need to work to feed themselves.

The Rana Plaza was a factory is Bangladesh where lots of women worked to make our clothes. Th building was unsafe and had cracks in the walls. The women told this to their bosses but because they had to make thousands of clothes in a short amount of time, their bosses them to get back to work. There was also far too many people in the building.

On the 24th of April 2013, the Rana Plaza Factory collapsed. 2,500 people were insured as they were inside the building when it fell down. Around 1,134 people were killed once the factory collapsed.

Activity: Write a letter to Amancio Ortega, The CEO of Inditex Fashion Group who owns Zara.

Amancio Ortega is the 6th riches person in the world. Ask your children to write a letter to him telling him that he needs to pay all garment workers a living wage, improve working hours and the factory conditions.

Explain to them that by paying a living wage the women can afford to feed their family and send their children to school to get an education. Explain that by improving working hours the women can spend quality time at home with their family and will have better health. Explain that by improving factory conditions by doing safety inspections and not having over crowded factories will ensure that the factory is a safe place for everyone to work and it will help to prevent a disaster like the Rana Plaza from happening again.