Traid Chief Executive, Dr Maria Chenoweth, shares how and why Traid funds its global projects and their lasting, long-term impact to create a fairer fashion industry.

Back in 2009, I made one of the most important decisions of my time at Traid: to direct our funding to the people and places most affected by the fashion supply chain. We knew then, and we know now, that if we wanted to drive real, long-lasting change, we had to look beyond the shop floor and into the farms, factories, and communities where our clothes are produced.

Since then, Traid has taken the same approach, where year after year, we work alongside our global partners to expand support for people that work within clothing supply chains and their families. Our collaborations are not short-term, as meaningful change takes time.

In 2025, we have sustained our annual commitment with £533,946 dedicated to continuing the funding of six projects in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Ethiopia, that have proven to deliver measurable change for people and our environment.

Projects we support with Pesticide Action Network UK and PAN Ethiopia.

We first began this ground breaking partnership in 2012, its success builds on lessons learned initially in Benin. Through this project we have seen organic farming practices take root in places once dominated by chemical-intensive monoculture. Cotton farmers in Ethiopia who once relied on hazardous pesticides are now adopting agroecological practices to go organic, improving not only their own health and that of the land and soil, but securing better futures for their families.

The innovative work and learnings from this project has been expanded beyond organic cotton farming. Vegetable farmers in Lake Ziway are now drawing on the evidence-based success of PAN Ethiopia’s pesticide reduction work with thousands of small-holder cotton farmers. The project began as a Traid funded pilot in 2018, to proof of concept in 2022, to now having trained a total of 1,240 farmers by the end of 2024.

The knowledge is spreading, and farmers are gaining resilience in the face of climate instability, earning better incomes, and building more control over their livelihoods.

We’re shaping brighter futures for children and young people in Bangladesh.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a major garment hub in the country, the children of garment workers learn and play at drop-in centres and day care facilities run by our partner Nagorik Uddyog. These are children of garment workers, who would otherwise be left alone whilst their parents – often single mothers – work long hours in factories. Instead, they’re cared for, educated, and protected.

We’ve supported this project since 2013, which has seen over 2,000 children thrive in safe, nurturing spaces, where they can simply enjoy being children.

We’re also renewing our support for another vital project in Dhaka, this time with Grambangla, which focuses on girls aged 14 to 17 trapped in exploitative labour, collecting waste on landfill sites. Through vocational training and job placement, we’re helping young girls transition away from waste picking into employment through education and the learning of tailoring skills.

The results have been overwhelmingly positive: every girl who completes the training has seen her income nearly double – from an average of BDT 4,500 (£29.71) a month waste picking to BDT 8,663 (£57.19). Importantly, none have had to return to the hazardous rubbish dumps, marking a truly positive outcome for this project.

In South India, we’re supporting garment workers who are the most hidden in our supply chains.

Tamil Nadu is one of India’s largest garment-producing regions, and many of the workers here are migrants, travelling across states in search of work. They face language barriers, unsafe conditions, and limited access to government services due to lack of official documentation.

But through our long-term partnership with READ, thousands of these workers are now gaining documentation, medical support, and access to government services. Their children are supported too, with evening study centres and Hindi-speaking tutors who help them stay in school in a Tamil-speaking system.

It’s practical, grassroots work which we’ve supported since 2013, which has evolved with the needs of the workers, to create pathways to access help, entitlements and support.

And in India and Nepal, we work with our partners at GoodWeave to reduce inequality and child labour.

Our project with GoodWeave is helping to remove children from exploitative work and create alternative pathways to a better future. Through running support groups and education programmes, they work with families, teachers and local leaders to rebuild trust in education systems and build support systems for children. They offer long-term rehabilitation and school reintegration for children who have been rescued, including those with no traceable family.

GoodWeave’s programmes don’t just address a single issue, they create a full ecosystem of care, education and community change. They understand there is a need to transform environments so education becomes possible and meaningful, and we are fully behind this.

We fund these projects because they create change that lasts.

The fashion industry continues to fail far too many of the people it depends on – the people that contribute to the production of our clothes are often underpaid and under-protected, leaving NGOs to step in to fill the gaps, to provide the innovation and support these workers should already have.

Traid’s continued support is fundamental in creating change that otherwise would not happen.

Traid raises its funds solely on the sale of second-hand clothes that are donated through our textile banks and home collections, buying your clothes through Traid charity shops enables us to continue the impactful change that is made globally for the people that make our clothes.

Thank you to everybody that donates, supports, works, and shops with Traid, you are amazing!