Looking good and doing good: APART cooperates with Cotton made in Africa

Cotton made in Africa is an initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation, which helps African smallholder cotton farmers improve their lives through trade. APART has supported the Aid by Trade Foundation since 2005. 

APART uses this high quality African cotton in various articles within its current collection and marks those garments whose purchase supports the Cotton made in Africa initiative with a special tag. This makes it easy for our customers to shop sustainable.

Cotton made in Africa
The project’s goal is to establish a Demand Alliance in developed countries for hand-picked African cotton cultivated in sub-Saharan regions by smallholder farmers. The Aid by Trade Foundation trains these farmers on-site in environmentally friendly, professional cultivation methods, enabling them to earn regular income and therefore to raise their own standard of living significantly.  This means that APART customers not only benefit from the fibre’s outstanding quality but also make a very valuable contribution to ‘aid by trade’ – combating poverty through fair commerce.

You can read more about the Cotton made in Africa project at www.cotton-made-in-africa.com.

Training and educational programs
At present, approximately 240,000 smallholder farmers from different African countries take part in the program. During workshops, the farmers are tought modern and efficient farming methods including a minimal usage of pesticides, which helps them to increase the quality of the cotton and the crop yield. Furthermore, the initiative supports improvements in educational infrastructure in the project areas. In 2010 more than ten million fabrics produced from cotton by Cotton made in Africa were sold worldwide. The initiative is expecting 15 million sold textiles for 2011.

Support this project by buying one of the stylish APART collection items at www.apart-fashion.de.