WE CANNOT LEAVE BEHIND THE WORKERS OF BANGLADESH RMG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY WHO MAKE THE BEST, COLORFUL, VALUE ADDED & SUSTAINABLE FASHION FOR REST OF THE WORLD, CAN WE?

When the Covid-19 pandemic started to clutch the European & North American nations; Most of the leading brands had started to scrap the work orders with the factories located in Bangladesh. Undeniably, the pandemic has caught us unprepared with its unprecedented scale & devastating impact but the order cancellations has resulted in abandonment of RMG workers of Bangladesh into uncertainty.

This rapidly transformed catastrophic pandemic not only devoured lives across countries but also exposed the vulnerability of the workers around the world. Around 2 million workers working in over 1000 factories in Bangladesh, have suffered the early impact of the pandemic. It is worth mentioning that these workers live their lives with least social safety nets. Now they are suffering the consequences of Covid-19 pandemic too.

To save lives of its workforce; Bangladesh, a garment powerhouse, was quick to implement the lockdowns, but this also meant throwing the entire nation in a severe economic crisis. Working community, with industries on standstill, are unable to pay off these people, and now the community is mongered not only with the fear of the current health crisis but with a more serious repercussion of extreme economic hardship that is about to hit us.

Bangladesh has been sustaining this business under consistent downward pressure of prices at pre coronavirus time. In addition to that, with the sudden outbreak of Covid-19, Now a completely unprepared Bangladesh have to work for protecting its millions of workers.

What does it mean for our workers?

Workers in this country are now facing the risk of losing their livelihood, their shelter, their medical relief and also the loss of education for their young ones, resulting in a trickle-down impact on the future generation while fear of the loss of lives of the current one. Since factories in Bangladesh started experiencing work order cancellation; thousands of Workers have fallen already victim to job annulment/layoff from hundreds of factories, of which most. are women who are breadwinners in their family.

Our Approach

We want to ensure that workers continue to live a life with their basic needs met. With the factories shutting down, Workers served with job annulment/layoff notices, we have started to raise funds for the livelihood of the workers. We want to support each worker with BDT 8,500 (USD 100) per month which is may not sufficient to cover all expenses for the month but he/she will be able to survive by purchasing foods with this money until the industry resettle again.

How long we will continue to support?

The catastrophe hit us hard as we were not prepared for it & every stakeholders including suppliers did not imagine ever that the whole industry will shut down in just weeks. But we are confident that the whole industry will come back & everything will go back to normal. We will try to keep helping the workers as long as we can, as long as it is deemed necessary

Who can contribute?

Anyone and everyone who understands how important the working community has been for our society and would like to help ensure they and their families don’t sleep hungry during this crisis.

We are in this together

As a community, we have withstood challenges that came before. This time the situation is much more extreme, and we are ready to commit with all the resources we have at our disposal to withstand the economic shock that is hitting our country and our industries.

With this in mind, Bangladesh Apparel Exchange is calling on friends, colleagues, business associates and the wider global audience to help us raise funds to support the workers of Bangladesh and their families through the COVID-19 CRISIS FUND FOR RMG WORKERS.

Please extend your support and help us save the community by donating.