Some of the students and officials who are members of the social justice panel.
DOHA: Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) students are supporting a living wage and promoting workers’ rights by buying Alta Gracia brand clothing.
The apparel is made at an experimental and economically progressive factory in Villa Altagracia town in the Dominican Republic. It is the first factory in the developing world to provide its workers a living wage and allow its employees to join a union.
Factory workers make T-shirts and sweatshirts for Knights Apparel, a US-based clothing company that provides sportswear for universities around the world. The factory was created in response to officials and student activists from universities who criticised the garment industry for producing university branded clothing at poverty wages.
GU-Q sells the clothing line, which includes an extensive Georgetown-branded collection of T-shirts and hoodies.
Shelley Ford, Manager of GU-Q bookstore where the clothes are sold, officially launched the Alta Gracia line by joining Uday Rosario, community-based learning administrator, and a group of panellists at a community forum to discuss social justice and the Alta Gracia mission to promote ethical standards in factory work.
Ford said: “This kind of factory model, where workers have a lunch break, work-chairs with backs, and natural light from windows, is a viable model. It is sustainable. The clothing that we buy does not have to come from sweatshops. Consumers have the power to make purchases that benefit those who make the clothes. What we buy can contribute to garment factory workers having nutritional food, sufficient housing, adequate healthcare, and means of educating their children.”
The social justice panel and the official launch of the apparel line were part of the Georgetown University Jesuit Heritage Week 2014 activities.
The Peninsula
