South African clothing retail company, The Foschini Group (TFG) has taken an active role in local communities affected by disaster or socio-economic circumstances and have donated over 100 000 blankets to South Africans in need.
The TFG “Sew Good Initiative” was launched in 2015 and has helped to train more than 350b women, many of who are employed at TFG’s Prestige Clothing factories in Caledon and Maitland. The two factories employ over 1200 people of which 92% are local women and currently produce 8.9 million garments for nine of TFG Retail apparel brands. According to TFG CEO, Anthony Thunstrom “TFG has a responsibility to contribute to the greater good”.
The initiative works with the largest disaster relief organization on the African continent called Gift of the Givers Foundation. The humanitarian organization effectively distributes to the needy especially during disaster relief, this includes victims of destructive fires which occurred in 2017 and the floods in Kwa-Zulu Natal which occurred this year.
Chairman of Gift of Givers, Imtiaz Sooliman said that “we serve people unconditionally and not expect anything back”. Sooliman added that the foundation has fulltime staff which does the essential things like packing the parcels, off-loading trucks and work extra hours because they are passionate about helping people.
