Welcome

The Clothing Bank’s vision is to “empower unemployed mothers through enterprise development” with the objective of making them financially and socially independent.  In South Africa, 48% of women are unemployed and 68% of children live below the poverty line (UNICEF 2010 report on SA).  This statistics suggests that unemployment in women is linked to children living in poverty. If you help a woman, you are also helping a child.

The business model is founded on the fact that there is a significant amount of excess (waste) merchandise in the retail supply chain.  We have established a strategic partnership with Woolworths, which donates all of its excess clothing to The Clothing Bank.  We sort, repair and distribute this clothing down two channels.

Firstly, our Enterprise Development Project.  In this project we recruit unemployed mothers, with the help of partner organisations and enrol them in a 24 month training programme.  In this programme we teach them skills such as money management, business skills, life skills and support them with ongoing coaching. We have partnerships in place with the South African Institute of Entrepreneurship (SAIE) and You and Your Money (an NPO) who provide the training.  Once the women have completed their initial training they then buy the merchandise from us at significantly discounted prices and sell the clothing in the informal sector in the townships.  The objective is that each women should earn at least R3000 per month.  “We are not just teaching her how to fish but we are also teaching her how to sell her fish”, says Tracey Chambers the CEO.  The change in these women is remarkable, once they experience success, they start to believe that a life of hope and happiness is possible.

Our second project is our NPO Clothing Distribution project where we supply NPOs (non profit organisations) with their clothing needs free of charge.  We work with the Western Cape Government and support their disaster relief efforts.