Your H&M top, those Abercrombie jeans, and that “trendy” Adidas shoes. Have you ever thought how they are made and where the source comes from? All of them have one thing in common and that is they use slaves to create their fashion pieces. Over 2 billion items of clothing are made yearly. And some of them are made from the hands of 10-16 year old. My focus will be on the slave labor in Cambodia. Recently I’ve read a book called “Fredrick Douglas” by Frederick Douglas and his journey through slavery. This opened my eyes and wonder whether slavery is still going on today. Surprisingly slavery is still going on all over the world. Slavery has been bigger than it’s ever have in this generation. There are 20.9 million people trapped in this vicious cycle of slavery somewhere out there In the world. Whether it’s through child labor, human trafficking, or a different source we see that slavery has never gone away.
The image on top shows a strong message that unlike us these poor innocent people don’t have a say in what they do. Some people are born into slavery and are forced to work in this field. In Cambodia there are still 20-60 children working in factories helping with garment production. Majority are women who are dehydrated and starving to make a living. They faint from exhaustion and dehydration from the working conditions they’re under. The end results are only $25 and some will sew clothes for $0.50 an hour. When you compare the workers to Frederick Douglas life he worked for $0 and had to plow the farm, get tortured from his masters, and was living in fear everyday in his life. The women and children in Cambodia have to go through the same things as Frederick Douglas. One word of opposition can lead to either death or severe punishments. In Cambodia, there was a case when a women was so exhausted to the point she could no longer sew and decided that she could not continue. When asked why she wasn’t working she tried explaining that her fingers were bruised, bleeding, cracked, and she could no longer feel them they didn’t take that lightly. In their eyes this person was weak and useless to them. If someone was going to slow down their work the solutions was to permanently get rid of them. Which they proceeded to do.
The dyed hands are the scars of the people who made sure your clothes with color were shown. Those chemicals in the dye contain lead which can lead to lead poisoning and death. It’s not just Cambodia that suffers from fashion slavery. Thailand, Bangladesh, and other Southeastern Asian countries.
Open your eyes and start to realize and be grateful for what you have, because somewhere out in the world there is always someone else grieving and suffering.
TAKEMETONEVERLAND 