| Used Clothing Imported to Haiti
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Used clothing is imported into under-developed countries. I have seen this is Africa, Guatemala and many other countries.
Bundles of used clothing being unloaded from large cargo ship in Miragoane, Haiti.
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Miragoane, Haiti - Ayiti - Wednesday, November 18, 2009
 Travel Gear Miragoane, Haiti Hotels
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This truck came to the port, loaded up with bundles of used clothing, and will truck them to other cities in Haiti.
These girls are sitting in the main square of Miragoane. I conjecture that people come from neighboring cities to buy used clothing wholesale. There is an advantage to buying here in Miragoane; they are able to select the clothes they believe are sellable. While if they purchased a complete bundle of clothing, they would be working on a different level of clothing distribution.
This business is fascinating, because somewhere, somehow, in the USA there are people donating clothing. Say the Salvation Army, the Church, some organization collects used clothing. Slowly it moves it way towards a country like Haiti. Along the line the clothes are sorted, the worn out clothing are discarded, then made into bails. I would guess these bundles were assembled in Miami, and then shipped to Haiti in a large container ship.
Somewhere along the line it stopped being free, this is a business.
My friend Mike in Ghana asked me to help him get clothes from the USA. More or less go straight to the donators, bypassing all the intermediaries. I just could not get my mind around the moral issue, this is a business, but thrives on free donations. I suspect the person donating the clothes believes the end user is not paying.
Now to be just, reasonable, and understanding, this distribution system allows cheap clothing to enter Haiti in a sustainable manner. Is it free for people? No, however, it may be as cheap as it gets.
Distributing free clothing is a questionable practice; it makes beggars out of good folk. On the other hand, somewhere along the line the morals has some detours, I am sure.
Used Clothes Imported into Haiti
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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)
John said on Thursday November 19th, 2009 07:16:09 AM 
http://www.johnpedroza.com/blog1
I have heard about this practice. It is most likely one of their countrymen who is turning these donations into a business. That person probably justifies it as "putting food on their table," but is invariably taking it off of someone else's. There is a way to stop it however. Due to this I have recently only donated to charities that I know directly distribute to the people recieving the benefits. The next step is education, this is a harder issue, because in many countries (the US included) the government doesn't want the people to know.
Chuck WoW said on Thursday November 19th, 2009 01:16:18 PM
The Clinton's took a tax write off on there donated underwear.
Former president Bill Clinton once made public a tax return on which he deducted $2 apiece for donated underwear. In a mandatory financial disclosure,
I bet there worth double now.
Pat said on Friday November 20th, 2009 03:43:07 AM
http://www.hereandtherewithpatandbob.com
I had the very same question about this a few years ago when I was in Thailand visiting with some Burmese refugees and wondered where did their obviously American style clothes come from. I was told that the clothes, (like the ones you saw) are from non-profits such as you mentioned. Generally, these are clothes they couldn't sell in their shops. They then sell them onto distributors who ship them overseas for sale. There is a considerable cost in doing this and an even greater profit to the distributors.
The non-profits, such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army, do perform a valuable service. The opportunity for them to sell items that are not moving from their stores is simply another revenue stream which helps them to achieve their mission. However, they are not concerned about the path the clothes take once out of their hands. This also happens with the electronics they cannot sell, which is a far greater problem and perhaps one they should consider more closely.
There are literally mountains of keyboards, monitors, and computers, again castoffs from recycling centers or non-profits, that are shipped to places in Africa and China.
According to CRI English.com "Mobile phones, for example, contain heavy metals such as lead and beryllium, as well as bromide used as a flame retardant in the circuit boards, all of which are potentially dangerous for humans.
The cadmium contained in a single mobile phone battery can contaminate about 60,000 liters of water."
Another example of this is what is happening in Ghana. According to earthhopenetwork, "Containers filled with old and often broken computers, monitors and TVs - from brands including Philips, Canon, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens and Sony - arrive in Ghana from Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands under the false label of "second-hand goods". The majority of the containers' contents end up in Ghana's scrap yards to be crushed and burned by workers, often children, sometimes using only their bare hands. This method not only pollutes the environment but also exposes workers to potentially toxic dust and fumes. This crude "recycling" is done in search of metal parts, mostly aluminium and copper, which sells for approximately 2 US Dollars per five kilos."
I commend you for your questioning the morality of the situation you noted in regards to the clothing. I hope you will agree that what you saw is a form of recycling that offers those people an opportunity to have an income through the resale of the clothing. In the long run it is a good thing for those people and their environment.
Dr. James Marzolf said on Friday November 20th, 2009 06:37:43 AM
Note in Pats comment "clothes they can't sell in their shops". Goodwill also sells the clothes and items you donate it covers their operating costs. Makes sense to sell the non-movers to some one. In turn, the sellers in Haiti probably don't charge much as Haitians couldn't afford much. However, I agree that if you donate with the understanding that the recipients will get it for free and, instead, they have to pay it is fraud.
Andy, I also noticed some time ago you had a missive about vast quantity use of cooking oil in Africa. In the picture accompanying it, note the cans of oil are labeled "USAID not for commercial sale." An excellent graphic example of the diversion of aid for pecuniary gain.
Michael Jones said on Saturday November 21st, 2009 06:12:26 AM
There is no free clothing, doantions to Goodwill and the DAV have to sorted, cleaned, sized etc. They sell it in there stores to fund food give aways and other social programs in the US, the unsaleable clothing is sold to defray operating costs in the US. There are other costs on these clotthes as they work there way to Thailand, Hati, and other 3rd world countries such as bundeling, shipping and distribution, not to for get paying people for there time and effort fro doing this.
Of course its a business, this is reality, not a dream world
Rob Cox said on Saturday December 12th, 2009 01:11:15 AM
Hi.
If you are interested in learning about how this works, just google the phrase "rag trade"
There are companies that have donation bins all over that have names that would make someone think that they are donating to a non-profit, when they are just giving their stuff to a BUSINESS.
Astrid Bernadotte said on Friday January 22nd, 2010 10:28:10 AM
I would like to donate clothes to Haiti and I am trying to find out how I can do that. Please could you send me any information about this, thank you.
Marjorie Chambers said on Friday January 22nd, 2010 07:17:04 PM
I have a loads of men and womens clothing ,shoes, socks , tee shirts and new undergarments and would like to donate to Haiti. Can some one please give me the name of an organization that is collecting these items. I also have pots pans and such. These items may be disposed of. Please advise.
AISHA said on Friday January 22nd, 2010 07:42:54 PM
Hey,
I am trying to donate clothes to Haiti and also i want donate can goods and any other living needs. Its just one problem i need to know how to send the items. if anybody could tell me i would truely apprieciate it. you can get intouch with me at 404-384-9061 or email me at a.lee09@yahoo.com. Thankyou God Bless.
Sunshine de la Cruz said on Saturday January 23rd, 2010 11:39:56 AM
Hello,
I want to donate clothes to Haiti. I have adult clothes and children clothes too. I also want to donate can goods and other non-perishable items. Please tell me how we can donate and where to send the donation to make sure it gets to the people of Haiti who were affected by the earthquake (and not to the rag trade business I read up in this thread).
Pls send me an email (Octsun30@gmail.com) asap to get our donation going. Thank you! God bless Haiti!
Toks Odubanjo said on Monday January 25th, 2010 04:25:51 AM
Please can you be of help to me, I lived in Britain and I would like to send some clothes both for adults and children - I want to ensure they get it direct to meet their needs instead of the middle person or organisation.
Can you please advice or tell me where to take the clothings
Thanks God bless Haiti
Darryl Whaley said on Monday January 25th, 2010 12:36:24 PM
I want to donate some clothes to Haiti. Can you help me out?
Geeta Parmar said on Tuesday January 26th, 2010 10:38:41 AM
We would like to donate some gently used clothing to Haiti. Where can we drop these items?
Joanna Herrra said on Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 08:43:04 PM
I would like to donate some clothes to Haiti, Where can I go to do so?
Bill Chandler said on Friday March 12th, 2010 12:43:36 PM
http://www.glso.org
Our organization has many new t-shirts left over from our last year Pride event.
We would be more than happy to donate them to Hati. Please advise us on how/if we may make this donation.
Thank you
Sincerely
Bill Chandler, GLSO Pride Center, Office Administrator
selvakumaarran said on Wednesday March 17th, 2010 12:22:51 AM
I am selvakumaarran from malaysia, I have a used cloths donation center which I want to send them to Haiti so I need which organization I can contact with ?
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Haiti, Latitude: 18.44167 | Longitude: -73.09287
Distance From Haiti,
to |
Miles |
Kilometers |
| Accra Ghana |
4,977 |
8,009 |
| Bangkok, Thailand |
10,186 |
16,393 |
| Cairo Egypt |
6,397 |
10,294 |
| Chicago |
1,831 |
2,946 |
| Frankfurt Germany |
4,974 |
8,004 |
| Istanbul, Turkey |
5,988 |
9,637 |
| Johannesburg South Africa |
7,449 |
11,987 |
| Kathmandu, Nepal |
8,936 |
14,381 |
| London |
4,502 |
7,244 |
| Los Angeles |
2,971 |
4,781 |
| Manila, Philippines |
10,165 |
16,358 |
| Mumbai, India |
8,969 |
14,433 |
| New York |
1,540 |
2,479 |
| Orland, Indiana |
1,760 |
2,832 |
| Paris France |
4,783 |
7,698 |
| San Francisco |
2,996 |
4,821 |
| Singapore |
11,058 |
17,795 |
| Tel Aviv Israel |
6,530 |
10,509 |
| Tokyo, Japan |
8,123 |
13,073 |
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