Anonymous Charity
Anonymous Beneficiary
During a collaborative module at university, I was a part in starting up beneficiary in order to help the homeless of birmingham. Bringing the idea to the table about the destruction of fast fashion in one of first meetings, not only to the enviroment, but also to the homeless community. After working in retail for a few years, aswell as a couple of charities around birmingham, my knowledge on these subjects became quite extensive as well as first hand experience some cases. I brought up the some examples I have seen working in retail and from there, the idea for our project was born. With each group member specialising in various art forms such as photography or poetry, our project had an extensive range of different talents. My participation in the project included being in contact with everyone involved (different charities and groups) as well the the presentation and layout of the social medias. It also Brough out my artistic side when having to plan and make the decorations and designs for the event we were planning on hosting to raise money for the homeless. I will be highlighting some main points about the beneficiary on this page but to read a more in depth research and investigation please feel free to have a look at the zine we created about the entire beneficiary and our work.
//
The value of a brand should be in making everyone feel beautiful and in doing so in a conscious way that fair trade/ wages, environmentally and socially supportive. Redefine you values and you'll start making bank. Infuriating.
"
"
Gianna Fusto
on Burberry's destruction of $38 million worth of unsold goods.
What I experienced is not an uncommon practice within the fashion industry. It’s a practice that popular brands including Nike, H&M and Urban Outfitters have all been in trouble for in the past. But one of the biggest scandals regarding the destruction of excess stock was when Burberry was discovered to have burnt over 23.9 million pounds worth of stock, including fashion, accessories and beauty products.
When questioned, a representative of the company claimed that:
​
‘When the disposal of products is necessary, we do so in a responsible manner and we continue to seek ways to reduce and revalue our waste’
​
Despite what they said, even faithful customers boycotted the company and its practices, refusing to purchase goods from them until strategies were put in place to avoid such waste occurring again. Eventually, the environmental audit committee was forced to step in, but as of June 2019, the government refused to implement the changes in laws which had been designed by the EAC to prevent this crime from ever occurring again.
Due to this, industries within fashion can continue these practices and have introduced a further 1.5 million tonnes worth of CO2 into our environment, as excess stock is burnt, as well as discarding in landfill over 300,000 tonnes of unsold product.
​
Because of Companies including Burberry refusing to donate the stock they don’t need, many homeless citizens rely on the generosity of the general public to keep them clothed and warm. So much of their survival depends on having a decent coat, a warm shirt, a sturdy pair of shoes and trousers. It is because of this we all want to show what it means to a person when you provide them with those materials.
In light of this, we went out as a group to meet those struggling with homelessness, and show how much we cared, even when companies who could make a difference didn’t. Visiting Tesco beforehand, we bought water and snacks to hand out, even to people who did not want a chat,
These interviews would then begin our journey towards boycotting the waste of clothing which could help so many in need and improving the treatment of people who face daily the struggles of surviving without a roof overhead.
DANIEL
JOHN
GAVIN
Daniel, John and Gavin's stories can all be found on our Instagram in great detail. we sat with each of them and discussed various topics while they ate their snacks. they were all extremely grateful and were just happy for the company and someone to talk to!
@anonymous_brum
I started posting on different social medias and messaging everyone I could think of in order to donate clothes for the homeless. As I was collecting clothing we had various other plans on how to raise some money for the homeless, such as with various events that can be found and discussed in the zine (at the top of this page).
​
On our instagram you can also see us debranding the clothes that were donated to us. As it is such a big problem for fast fashion industries to not want their logos on the "streets", we took to taking off any logos and labels and setting an example of how easy it is. After this we started to go around Birmingham and hand out various clothing such as jumpers, trousers and even socks to any homeless person in need.
The benefciary is currently ongoing yet because of Covid-19 and the safety of others we decided to take a break from going out into the streets to hand out clothing. We are still collecting clothing whenever people want to donate and I have created small cards that are available for anyone to print off and hand out to homeless people when going out for essential errands or to work. These cards contain useful phone numbers for places to stay or hotlines for those in need in Birmingham. They can be found when the button below is clicked and should be printed double sided and cut out with the guidelines with 8 cards on each double sides A4 paper.