Donate directly to The OR Foundation to help combat the social and environmental impact of textile waste and second hand clothing waste in Ghana's Kantamano textile market. Learn more about The OR Foundation and their mission to catalyze justice-led circular solutions at theor.org or follow @theorispresent

ABOUT THE OR FOUNDATION 

The OR Foundation​ is a USA and Ghana based non-profit on a mission to catalyze a Justice-led Circular Economy in Accra, Ghana. For the last four years The OR Foundation has conducted an in-depth analysis of Accra’s Kantamanto Market, which is both the largest resale economy in West Africa and the largest consolidated point of waste for all of Accra. The OR's research has recorded that 15 million secondhand garments pass through Kantamanto every week and that 40% of those garments leave the market as waste. ​This excess not only has a devastating impact on the environment with much of the clothing ending up in the ocean, but the secondhand market necessitates dangerous and sometimes fatal forms of labor. This is especially true for the hundreds of girls, some as young as eight, who work as kayayei (head-porters) carrying 120lb bales of clothing on their heads for pennies. The excess clothing that floods secondhand markets like Kantamanto also undermines Ghana’s indigenous sustainability logic and up-cycling culture by presenting clothing as a disposable commodity and making it difficult for Ghanaian designers to compete with the cheap, secondhand imports. 

The OR Foundation aims to clean up this mess through a three-pronged approach: 

1. Textile shredding operation and materials research lab
2. Regenerative farming training program for women who work as kayayei (head porters).
3. Continued education and advocacy.

Impact of Giving Tuesday ($20 in relation to mission) 

• $10 supports one women working as kayayei with a week's worth of food (uncooked foods as part of the COVID relief effort) and hygiene products
• $20 will allow The OR to recover ~200 garments from Kantamanto’s waste stream in the initial scale up of their recycling facility
• $50 supports one day of training for one woman through our regenerative farming program. This program will provide an opportunity for women working as kayayei to grow food for their own community and to learn climate resilient skills that they can apply to their family farms, multiplying the impact through the provision of food for a wider community
• $100 supports a one day beach cleanup and waste education for 25 people. Clothing and shoe waste is removed from the marine environment and participants learn about the environmental consequences of clothing waste. Funds cover the cost of drinking water, protective gear, waste management and educational resources. Each participant typically recovers between 10-25 pounds of clothing during the activity.