ContentsParagraph - Notes for LeadersInput - What's all this about fashion? 2minsVideo - The True Cost 3minsActivity - Time travel T-shirt 7minsImage - NazeebInput - Nazeeb's Story 3minsBible study - Build a bigger wardrobe 5minsBible study - Who's clothing who? 4minsInput - How did Tearfund help Nazeeb? 2minsImage - Nazeeb with a chick at his poultry farmPrayer activity - A reminder to pray 5minsActivity - Take Action: The MobiliserActivity - Take action: The MakerImage - Taking action togetherActivity - Take action: The AdvocateActivity - Take action: The ActivistGame - OPTIONAL EXTRA: A Fashion Relay Race 5minsActivity - How much do you know about fashion? 5minsVideo - Who chooses what we wear? 5minsDiscussion - The Rana Plaza disaster 7mins

FASHIONDo you know where your T-shirt came from?

Total resource time: 53mins

Image - Keep in touch

Notes for Leaders Paragraph

Text:Welcome to our session for groups looking at the clothing industry.

Here's how the session works. The main session lasts 30 minutes. At the end of the session there are 4action ideas, each geared towards the different unique strengths that you explored as a group.

There are lots of surprises and stories hidden in the clothing industry that we didn't know about; abouthow our clothes can have an impact on the people who make them, and an impact on the planetthrough the industrial processes used. But, the good news is that there are lots of actions we can taketo make ethical choices when we buy clothes! We would encourage your group to consider takingaction together - this could involve everyone working together around one action, or working togetheras a group using a combination of actions. You choose whatever will be most helpful for your group.

You will also see a number of OPTIONAL EXTRA modules. These are great additions to the session ifyou have more than 30 minutes.

What's all this about fashion? Input 2mins

Input / Talk:What is your favourite outfit that you’ve ever worn? Maybe it’s a shirt that goes with everything; or aformal outfit you wore to your school prom; or maybe it’s an outfit you wore all the time as a kid.Maybe your wardrobes are bursting at the seams and you would have to pick 10 favourite outfits!

Fashion and the clothes we wear can be a really fun way to display a bit of our own style and personality.But our clothes make a statement, even if we don’t realise it.

Did you know that the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter, behind the oil industry? Did you know that many of the people who make our clothes are treated unfairly? Did you know that it takes 2700 liters of water to make a single T-shirt?

How often do you think about where your clothes come from? Probably not very often, especially ifyou’re half asleep in the morning when you put them on! But sometimes we forget that our clothesdon’t just appear in our favourite high street shops in a puff of smoke. Each item of clothing makes along journey to reach the hangers in our shops. Each piece of clothing has gone through the hands ofmany people and gone through many industrial processes before it ends up in our wardrobes.

Now multiply those people and processes by the number of items you have in your wardrobe! Ourwardrobe and drawers are bursting at the seams, and every piece of clothing has it’s own story of whereit has come from. The clothes we choose to buy have had an impact on the people who were involved inmaking them, and have had an impact on the planet, as the material goes through intensive industrialprocesses.

So, how can we make sure that our clothes make a statement that reflects our love for Jesus and ourlove for people who are living in poverty across the world?

The True Cost Video 3mins

Introduction:Check out this trailer for a film called The True Cost. It’s about exactly that; the true cost of theclothes that we buy. You can find the full film online or on Netflix.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss)

Warning

Some younger viewers may find this video upsetting, so we would advise you to preview it to ensure it issuitable for the group.

Time travel T-shirt Activity 7mins

Object of the activity:Ok let’s just clarify a few things before we move on. Clothes aren’t bad. Being interested in fashion isn’twrong. For lots of us, how we dress is part of how we express ourselves to the world - and that’s allgood. But like all good things, it can be twisted and abused and distorted into something unhealthy, forus, the planet and other people.

Well let’s think about a simple cotton t-shirt.

We are going to think about the past, the present and the future of this T-shirt

Start with the past. Where has this T-shirt come from? Here's some questions that might help yourdiscussion:

- Where did I buy this t-shirt from? - Where was it before that? - How did it get between the factory and the shop? - What is the t-shirt made from? - Where did that material come from? - How was it picked? - Did the material grow naturally? - How were the toxic chemicals sprayed?

Fact: It takes 2720 litres of water to make a t-shirt. That’s how much we normally drink over a 3 yearperiod.

Just to get to my wardrobe this ONE simple garment has already made a huge (and negative) impact onthe planet and potentially on the people involved in the process! Multiply that by how many items we have in our wardrobes and we begin to see the problem.

That’s the past. What about the present? What impact does my t-shirt have now that I own it?

Here's some questions that might help your discussion: - How do I maintain my T-shirt?

Fact: 75-80% of our clothing’s lifestyle impact comes from washing and drying (less if we don’t usetumble driers).

And now, let's think about the future of the T-shirt.

Here's some questions that might help your discussion:

- When I’ve become outgrown it, what do I do with it? - When I'm bored of wearing that T-shirt, what do I do with it?

- Where does the T-shirt go when we put it in the bin? - What happens to the T-shirt after it arrives at the dump?

Fact: It takes years for our clothes to decompose! Cotton can take a year, to decompose, wool cantake up to 5 years and nylon can take up to 40 years! That means when you are middle aged, the T-shirt that you threw out when you were a kid could still be at the dump!

You will need:

A T-shirtBig sheets of paperPens

Steps / rules:1. You could do this exercise in smaller groups and feedback ideas to the whole group at the end, or

discuss among the whole group.2. Hang up a T-shirt as a prop to stimulate thoughts and provoke discussion.3. Explain that we’re going to visit the past, present and future life of this t-shirt and plot its

environmental and human impact.4. Write up each stage of the process so that everyone can see how much is involved5. For each step of the T-shirt's journey, ask the questions; How did step impact people? and, How

did this step impact the planet?

Conclusions:So from the start of its life right to the end, my simple t-shirt has a massive impact on the environmentand the people who made it and brought it to the shop where I bought it.

Nazeeb Image

Nazeeb's Story Input 3mins

Input / Talk:Nazeeb and his family are from Bihar, a state in the north of India. They were living in poverty. At theage of 14, Nazeeb had to drop out of school and find work, because his family didn't have enough toeat. He was offered 6,000 rupees a month (that's about £60 a month), but had to travel 2000kmfrom Bihar to Punjab, where the work was. His mother was told, there would be food and lodgings. Andhe would be able to send money home every month.

But the job wasn't that same that Nazeeb had been told about. Nazeeb was forced to work 21 hours aday, 6 days a week in a clothes factory, That's roughly 504 hours a month. So he was offered 11.9p perhour! He had to sew 3000 zips per hour. The conditions in the factory were terrible but Nazeeb andthe 11 other workers were locked in all week. They had to sleep, eat and work all in the same room.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to sleep for just three hours a night on the factory floorconsistently?! And remember, Nazeeb was only 14 years old and thousands of kilometers away from hisfamily.

After some time, Nazeeb became ill with Typhoid but he wasn't even allowed to go to the hospital.Instead of his employers letting his take some time off to rest and get better they took his job awayfrom him and locked him out of the factory, without paying him for any of the work he did there.Nazeeb didn't earn anything for all of his hard work.

Build a bigger wardrobe Bible study 5mins

Introduction:The fashion industry is a multi-million pound industry. It's huge! But part of the reason for this is that welove to shop. Rather than just buying what we need, we buy and buy and buy until our wardrobes are fulland our drawers won't close.

Imagine you are to pack a suitcase with clothes to last you the next month. You pack all the things youwear regularly - your favourite or most recent purchases. But, if you were to go back to your drawersand wardrobes after you'd packed, they would probably still be full of clothes!

If you have ever moved away for university or a gap year, you may have found something similar; youruni room is full with all the clothes you like to wear. But when you come home for holidays, you findthat your room in your parents house is still full of clothes!

The man in the parable that Jesus tells in this passage came across a similar issue when it came to hisstuff.

Passages:Luke 12 v 13-23 Bible Gateway

Questions:1. What does this passage tell you about Jesus' attitude towards consumption.2. How can you see your shopping habits reflected in the parable?3. The passage talks about being 'rich towards God'. How could we be 'rich towards God' when we

shop?

Conclusion:The more and more we over-consume, the greater the impact we are having on the people involved inthe fashion industry, like Nazeeb, and on the planet that is being damaged by the industrial processesinvolved.

The bible tells us to stop over-consuming. We don't need to build a bigger barn, or invest in a biggerwardrobe, because it's not good for us to keep buying more and more.

Instead let's be challenged to change the way we shop to reflect Jesus' teaching, both about how muchwe consume, and about how we love our neighbours and care for the planet.

Who's clothing who? Bible study 4mins

Introduction:The bible is very clear, throughout both the old and the new testament, about how we should care forpeople who are living in poverty. The instruction to practically support people who are in need and theconsequences when we ignore the need that people who are living in poverty have, are clearly spelledout.

As Christians, when we follow Jesus, that means we are striving to go out of our way to love and care forthose who are living in poverty. That can mean simply through sharing the money we have, but that alsomeans that the actions that are involved in our everyday, normal lives, should reflect that mission too.

Passages:Matthew 25 v 31-46 Bible Gateway

Conclusion:This passage is so clear that we should be caring for those who are in need. This is our worship to God.

But yet, so often in our world, instead of us reaching out to clothe those the poor, it is people who areliving in poverty who are clothing us.

Imagine meeting Nazeeb in your favourite high street shop. Imagine he hands you the T-shirt that youwent in to buy, fresh out of the factory.

As garment factories and the fashion industry continue to exploit people and hinder those already livingin poverty, we have a responsibility to change the way we shop, to help us love those people instead.

We have an incredible leader and role model in Jesus! He is teaching us to love those who aremarginalised and who are living in poverty. We have the opportunity to do this every time we goshopping!

How did Tearfund help Nazeeb? Input 2mins

Input / Talk:Thankfully Nazeeb got home safely. He was able to borrow money and take the train home to hisfamily. Tearfund provided his family with a loan to start raising chickens! Tearfund's partner in Bihar,EHA, are helping to train Nazeeb's family in poultry farming. This means they can trade chickens togenerate an income, giving them enough money to feed the family. And Nazeeb doesn't have to travelthousands of kilometers away to an unknown job that could be very dangerous.

EHA have also helped Nazeeb's mum to set up a self-help group, through which they are raisingawareness of the dangers of travelling far away for work, and of traffickers who come to trick familieswith fake job offers. They are spreading the word among the community to try and keep other childrenlike Nazeeb safe.

Nazeeb with a chick at his poultry farm Image

A reminder to pray Prayer activity 5mins

Introduction:Write a prayer about the fashion industry and tie it around your wrist.

This will remind you when you go shopping to consider if you really need to buy, and to consider ifthere's a different shop you could buy it from.

It will also remind you to pray for the fashion industry! Pray for the people who make the clothes, forthe people who make the rules about how damaging the process can be to the planet, for our cultureto change it habits, and for the church to be able to show the world a different way of shopping.

You will need:

Strips of fabric or ribbon, approx 30cm long.Felt tip pens that will write on the fabric.

Steps:1. Give each person a strip of fabric and a pen2. Write something that will remind you about the damaging impacts of the fashion industry on the

fabric. It could be part of Nazeeb's story, part of a bible passage that you've read, a statistic thatsurprised you, or a personal reflection.

3. Tie the fabric around your write to remind you to pray and remind you to think when you next goto buy clothes.

Take Action: The Mobiliser Activity

Object of the activity:A lot of the truths behind the fashion industry are hidden, and we have no idea what we are buying in towhen we go shopping.

Create an opportunity to tell your friends about what you have heard.

Host a movie night with a twist. Invite your friends around to watch the True Cost film together.

You will need:

The True Cost film - you can get this online or on NetflixA room to watch the film inA laptop or TVIf you wanted to make it like a cinema, you could hook up a projector and speakers tooPopcorn and drinks

Steps / rules:1. Find a date and a venue for your film night2. Invite your friends. Don't forget to tell them where, what day and what time.3. Before the film starts, explain to your friends that you heard that the fashion industry is having

huge impacts on the people involved and the planet. This film will help explain more.4. Play the film.5. You may want to chat about the film afterwards, to hear what your friends thought and explore

what you could do differently together.

Conclusions:This is a powerful film that has lots of information in it. You may want to explore the idea of doingsomething further with your friends in response. Check out the other action ideas for some suggestionsto get you going.

Take action: The Maker Activity

Object of the activity:Host a clothes swap event.

Create an event for your friends to come and swap their clothes. This is a great way to get some newoutfits without having to buy new clothes!

And why not use the opportunity to raise some money for Tearfund work with children at risk, likeNazeeb.

You could include a clothes hospital as part of your event, and encourage friends to bring clothes thatneed mended. Mending clothes rather than buying new clothes is a great way to prolong the life of yourwardrobe!

If you're feeling particularly creative, you could include an upcycling station, for friends to bring clothesthat are too old to wear anymore, but that part could be upcycled to create a new accessory.

You will need:

A dateA venueClothes that are in good conditions, collected from your friendsClothes rails (optional)Coat hangersDrinks and snacks (optional)Needles, thread, sewing machine etc - for a clothes hospitalNeedles, thread, scraps of material, accessories - for an upcycling station

Steps / rules:1. Organise a date and a venue for your clothes swap2. Decide what you want your event to look like and what will happen on the day3. You might want to ask some friends to help you run the event.4. Send out the invitation to all your friends5. Ask your friends to drop of a couple of items of good quality clothes that they don't need

anymore.6. Sort the clothes and hang them ready for the event7. Set up your drinks and snacks, clothes hospital, upcycling station, and anything else you would like

to include in your event.8. When you're friends arrive, suggest that they can select two pieces of clothes to take home. If

you have lots left over near then end, invite people to take more.

Taking action together Image

Take action: The Advocate Activity

Object of the activity:What is the most popular high street clothes shop amongst your friends?

Take a vote.

Now, try to find out how that shop makes its clothes. What are their ethical standards? How do theytreat their factory workers? How do their manufacturing processes affect the environment?

Ask 100 people to ask these questions with you! All on the same day, tweet the shop, or tag them onInstagram, to ask them your questions.

Your challenge is to get as many responses and answers from the shop as possible! This will help toexpose their practices, making the process more transparent. And also opens up communication foryou to challenge them to improve their standards.

Once you have done this, you could arrange a meeting with the manager of the local store. Ask yourfriends to join you when you go to meet the manager, and ask them for more information about howtheir clothes are made.

You will need:

To gather a bunch of friendsTwitter and/or Instagram accounts

Steps / rules:1. Invite your friends to take action with you in asking your favourite high street clothes shop about

their ethical standards.2. Take a vote amongst your friends about which shop to contact3. Pick a day that you will all contact the shop on4. Find the correct twitter and instagram handles for the shop5. Decide what question you are going to ask the shop6. Get tweeting and 'gramming!7. Follow up with any replies you get from the shop. Reply to ask them further questions or to ask

them to change their practices.8. Set up a meeting with the manager of the local store.9. Arrange for your friends to join you when you go to meet the manager. Don't forget to let the

manager know that you are bringing some friends!10. Organise what you would like to say to the manager. Tell them why you care about the impact of

the fashion industry on people and the planet. Tell them why you chose to speak to them and

what you could like to find out, or what you would like the shop to do.11. Spread the news amongst the friends who took action on social media. Encourage them with any

updates.12. You could arrange to repeat these activities regularly, to keep encouraging the shop to make

their clothes more ethically!

Take action: The Activist Activity

Object of the activity:The life of a garment factory worker can be tedious, dangerous, boring and unfulfilling.

Remember Nazeeb's story; he had to sew 3000 zips every hour!

Find out what it's like and do a sponsored sew. You challenge is to sew buttons on to an old sheet ALLMORNING.

Get up early and sew from 7am - 12pm. No TV, no chat, no snacks.

Ask your friends, family and church to sponsor you, to raise money for Tearfund's work with children atrisk, like Nazeeb.

You could also use the experience to share the truth behind the garment issue with your church. Askfor a 5 minute slot in the Sunday service to share Nazeeb's story, to tell them that you are trying to findout more about what it's like by sewing buttons for £5, and to offer them the chance to donate to yourfundraising for Tearfund.

You will need:

An old sheetLots and lots of buttons - you can often find these in a charity shopNeedlesThreadA sponsor sheet/ Just Giving pageA slot in the Sunday Service at church

Steps / rules:1. Speak to your minister to ask if you could have a 5 minute slot in the Sunday service.2. Find a date that you can sew from 7am-12pm3. Tell your family and friends why you are taking on the challenge. You could share Nazeeb's story.

Invite them to sponsor you, to raise money more Tearfund's work with children at risk.4. Start sewing! No TV, no chat, no snacks. Just sewing for 5 hours.5. You might want to record a short video about how you're feeling at the beginning of the

challenge, in the middle of the challenge, and at the end. You could use these clips in your 5 minchurch service slot.

6. Collect your sponsorship money and send it to Tearfund. Details about how to give are on theTearfund webiste.

Leaders' notes

Make sure you have breakfast before you start your challenge!

Warning

Beware of sharp needles.

OPTIONAL EXTRA: A Fashion Relay Race Game 5mins

Introduction:Time for a bit of fun with a lot of clothes!

Object of the game:Be the first team to use all 5 items of clothes and win the relay race

You will need:

old t-shirtsold jumpersold glovesold scarvesold hats

Steps / rules:1. Divide the group into teams of 52. Each team line up behind the start line3. At the other side of the room, place a set of clothes for each team. In each sets there should be

a T-shirt, a jumper, a pair of gloves, a scarf and a hat.4. Start the race. The first team member for each team runs to the set of clothes and puts one item

on. They run back to their team, take the item of clothing off, and give it to the second teammember.

5. The second team member puts on the item of clothing and runs to the set of clothes to take asecond piece of clothing. They put on the second piece of clothing and run back to the thirdteam member.

6. The second team member takes off the two pieces of clothing and passes them to the third teammember, who puts them on.

7. This continues until the last team member has returned to their team wearing all 5 pieces ofclothing.

How much do you know about fashion? Activity 5mins

Object of the activity:This is a short quiz to test your knowledge on the fashion industry.

You will need:

The quiz questionsPaper and a pen for each team

Steps / rules:1. Divide the group in to teams. Give each team a pen and a piece of paper.2. Question 1. People in the UK spend more than £2.5 billion A MONTH on clothes. That is £30

billion a year – or £500 per person per year. True or False?3. Question 2. The average British woman owns eight blouses. True or False?4. Question 3. There are 100 million child labourers in the fashion industry. True or False?5. Question 4. A worker working in Vietnam making sports shoes for major brands earns £1.10 a day

(around £400 a year). That would mean the worker would have to work for 5.5 hours to buy acinema ticket and 1.5 hours to buy a can of Coke. True or False?

6. Question 5. Meantime, the boss of one sportswear company earns a staggering £3,000 a day.True or False?

7. Give the answers to the questions: Question 1: True Question 2: False (correct answer: 16)Question 3: False (correct answer: 250 million) Question 4: True Question 5: True

8. Compare scores to find the winning team

Who chooses what we wear? Video 5mins

Introduction:Who chooses what we wear? We do - or at least we think we do.

There’s an whole industry out there, from designers to companies to advertisers who are telling what thebest clothes to buy are, and that you need more and more clothes to keep up with your friends and lookthe part.

Chat to the person beside you: - How does that make you feel? - Do you think you’re immune from being pulled in to the system? - Did you really need the last piece of clothing that you bought? Why did you buy it?

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5WWy_0VLS4)

The Rana Plaza disaster Discussion 7mins

Introduction:Read this article about the Rana Plaza disaster.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza building is, to date, the deadliest disaster in the history of the garmentindustry worldwide. Some 3,639 workers toiled in five factories housed in the Rana Plaza building, producing clothing forU.S., Canadian and European clothing labels and retailers. Eighty percent of the workers were youngwomen, 18, 19, 20 years of age. Their standard shift was 13 to 14 ½ hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 or10:30 p.m, toiling 90 to 100 hours a week with just two days off a month. Young “helpers” earned 12cents an hour, while “junior operators” took home 22 cents an hour, $10.56 a week, and senior sewersreceived 24 cents an hour and $12.48 a week. On Wednesday morning, April 24, 2013 at 8:00 a.m., 3,639 workers refused to enter the eight-storyRana Plaza factory building because there were large and dangerous cracks in the factory walls. Theowner, Sohel Rana, brought paid gang members to beat the women and men workers, hitting them withsticks to force them to go into the factory. Managers of the five factories housed in Rana Plaza alsotold the frightened workers, telling them that if they did not return to work, there would be no moneyto pay them for the month of April, which meant that there would be no food for them and theirchildren. They were forced to go in to work at 8:00 a.m. At 8:45 a.m. the electricity went out and the factories’ five generators kicked on. Almost immediatelythe workers felt the eight-story building begin to move, and heard a loud explosion as the buildingcollapsed. 1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza. A year later, over 200 remain missing.

Questions:1. Do you remember hearing about this disaster on the news?2. If you knew that your clothes had been made in this factory, would it change your decision to buy

clothes from the same shop in the future? Why?

Keep in touch Image

Tearfund Youth Team100 Church RoadTeddingtonTW11 8QE

tearfund.org/youthyouth@tearfund.org020 8977 9144© 2015 TearfundRegistered Charity No.265464 (England & Wales) No.SC037624 (Scotland).