Responsible Fashion
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Wildlife Works Scholarship Recipient Joins the Team
“I get satisfaction in my job through putting perfection into my work,” says Zanira Kasyoka, one of the lucky recipients of a Wildlife Works’ scholarship that fully sponsored her secondary education. Her talents and hard work stood out and she is now fully employed as an assistant in the Wildlife Works’ carbon-neutral, eco-factory office. Meet Zanira, first a scholarship recipient now an employee Zanira comes from a humble background in the village of Itinyi, Taita Taveta County, within our project area in Kenya. She was brought up by a single mother together with her elder sister. She now lives with her mother and grandmother, as her sister has married and moved…
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Reproductive Health Education and Support for Wildlife Works Communities
Within the captivating yet isolated hills of Sagalla, Taita Taveta County, Kenya, 20 women and two men came together to form a self-help group with the objective of improving reproductive health. Rauka Reproductive Health Group meets at the Sagalla Health Centre under the auspices of the Sagalla community health unit. Members of Reproductive Health Group Hygiene is a common concern for people living in poverty in developing nations. Rauka Reproductive Health Group felt the need to address issues that are related to reproductive hygiene, especially menstruation hygiene, to assist women and girls in the area. With this initiative, the group has been able to reduce traditional birth deliveries where now…
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Supporting the Community that Supports Your Production
The SOKO Community Trust is the community outreach arm of the ethical clothing factory, SOKO, that operates within the same Export Processing Zone as Wildlife Works and with whom we share knowledge and implement community projects. Soko and their clients invest in initiatives that support the community in which they produce: Maungu, Kenya, where Wildlife Works’ Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project operations are based. The SOKO Community Trust’s initiatives aim to provide people with the practical skills needed to lift themselves out of poverty. On 22th June 2016, The Trust celebrated the launch of two new programs: Stitching Academy Hub and the Pipeline Roadshow Wildlife Works Community Relations Officer, Joseph Mwakima,…
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Greater Good and Soles 4 Souls Donate Boots to Rangers
Greater Good, a charity organization that is based in the United States working to protect people, pets and the planet, partners with Wildlife Works on a variety of projects, including producing apparel at our eco-factory in Kenya and raising money for our projects through activities in the U.S. Last year, Greater Good paid a visit to the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya and saw a need for our rangers to have new boots. The effectiveness of our patrolling ranger staff is critical to protecting the 500,000 acres of the project area from poaching of wildlife and deforestation. Head Ranger Erick Sagwe distributing shoes. Greater Good worked with…
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Violet: Weaving Herself a More Sustainable Future
A good life is like weaving; energy is created in the tension. The struggle, each pull and tug builds on the next to create the perfect basket. Weaving baskets is a tradition in native Taita culture, a tribe of people living in the hills in South Eastern Kenya. Violet Simba is part of the Basket Weaver Women Group in Jora, a village in the shadow of Mount Kasigau that is within the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project area. Violet is one of 30 weavers in the Jora group who have turned to weaving Sisal baskets in order to be less dependent on subsistence agriculture. Violet Simba, a traditional basket…
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ASOS Foundation Continues to Fund Wildlife Work’s Community
Wildlife Works partners with ASOS, a large online retailer in Europe that produces with our affiliate factory SOKO, to implement ASOS Foundation funded initiatives in Kenya. Two local development projects that have recently been completed by this partnership are the construction of a water pipeline and the making of lockers and chairs for Buguta Secondary School in Taita Taveta County, Kenya. The ASOS Foundation has funded the construction of 5.7 km of pipeline to supply clean drinking water for domestic and human consumption to 150 households in the town of Mackinnon Road. The water originates from Mzima Springs in Tsavo National Park West, Kenya. The water pipeline project is managed by…
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Disability is not and Inability: Buguta Disabled Group
Wildlife Works Partners with the Buguta Disabled Group “Disability is not and Inability” is the motto of the Buguta Disable Group and they prove it to be true with every stitch they make while creating products that are sold to customers all over the world. Since 2011, Wildlife Works has been working with the Buguta Disabled Group, a group of 30 members who work to support eachother and their families, emotionally and financially. Membership is not limited to those who are disabled; family members of disabled people can also join, because as caretakers need just as much support! Lea Mvumba, known as Mama Lea in the community, the chairwoman, and her husband, Jacob, started…
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The Real Sustainable Supply Chain
Jan 2016 By: Joyce Hu, Creative Director, Wildlife Works What does an ethical production chain really look like for the end of the supply chain, where your products are actually made? We can all point to fair trade practices such as living wages, legal working hours, child-free labor, and safe working environments. But nobody talks about the unsexy details; all the small business and design transactions up the chain that must take place in order to protect those workers’ rights. Most consumers – even designers and buyers – have no idea how every decision at each step of the fashion production chain exponentially impacts the workers’ every day ability to survive and thrive. For…
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Completion of Much Needed Rainwater Catchment Tank
On December 8, the village of Buguta, and six surrounding villages, celebrated the transfer of the Kula Kila rainwater catchment tank to the community. Wildlife Works installed the tank, which was funded by ASOS Foundation, the foundation arm to ASOS, a fashion client of SOKO, which is a partner factory located in our sanctuary. The tank, engineered for water collection ease, has greatly enhanced the villagers’ lives. Women from the seven villages started off the festivities with a traditional dance called Girama. The ward’s administer, a member of the county assembly, village elders from the seven villages, Wildlife Works representatives, and a SOKO Trust representative spoke at the dedication ceremony. The Kula…
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Wildlife Works Becomes Africa’s Only Carbon Neutral, Fair Trade Factory
Wildlife Works Becomes Africa’s Only Carbon Neutral, Fair Trade Factory And Launches it’s First Fair Trade USA Collection with Threads for Thought By Joyce Hu Creative Director Wildlife Works We are proud to announce that as of Spring 2015, Wildlife Works became Africa’s first and only carbon neutral, fair trade factory, upon receiving Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) Factory certification. Wildlife Works Fair Trade Apparel Factory: Our factory was founded in 2001 on ethical and fair trade policies, back before the fashion industry even had the words to describe sustainable fashion. Since then, fast fashion has come to dominate and the fashion industry is seeing more and more consequences from the perils of…