Week 1-Uyen Ngo

Week 1 of the Be Green Challenge-Uyen Ngo

For me personally, when I am looking at the "circle" of "sustainable fashion from producer and customer perspective" (Fig 1. Khandual, Pradhan), I think the aspect of "fair and ethically made" is the most important aspect to me personally. This holds a place in my heart as it is no secret that Vietnam is a big location of sweatshops. We often have talked about how these companies exploit the people's need for work as mentioned in the movie "The True Cost". However, what is often times not mentioned is that sometimes, especially when it is children, they are actually forced to work in these conditions.

An article on BBC talks about Blue Dragon Children's Foundation which a charity that "helps children forced into a variety of jobs from prostitution to begging, but in the past year just over a quarter of that number have been rescued from garment factories in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest metropolis and industrial centre" (Brown). In fact, I did not even know this about my own country and the severity of the situation. I had assumed earlier that like other countries, these children chose to work in order to provide for their family or perhaps other younger siblings. Finding out that people used children trafficking as part of this system actually made it even easier to sustain from purchasing items. I cannot be hypocritical and say I have never purchased items made by these children, in fact I am sure I have a few items in my closet that was. However, the only thing I can do now is start to be conscious of my purchases and over the course of the first week, I actually found it quite easy. I had needed an item for a costume party over this weekend and usually that would mean heading over to Forever 21 and purchasing some cheap and easy one time pieces. However, I was able to think "do I really need to" before actually heading over. And I found I was able to do so rather easily. I could survive not having an amazing party outfit if it meant not supporting something that goes against my morals. 

Works Cited

Movie: Director Andrew Morgan. “The True Cost” (2015)

Asimananda Khandual and Swikruti Pradhan. “Fashion Brands and Consumers ApproachTowards

Sustainable Fashion."

Brown, Marianne. “Vietnam's Lost Children in Labyrinth of Slave Labour.” BBC News, BBC, 27 Aug. 2013, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23631923.