Japanese clothing group Fast Retailing (FR) on Friday announced the start of its Power of Clothing Project, under which it will work with schools in Japan to collect clothing for refugees and all the people in need.
FR will use the Power of Clothing Project to deepen its ties with communities under the Uniqlo All-Product Recycling Initiative, a program that gives customers the chance to return second-hand apparel to stores for donation or recycling purposes. The company expects to work with approximately 100 schools in the first year of the Power of Clothing Project.
The FR group had collected approximately 19 million articles of clothing by November 2012, ever since the All-Product Recycling Initiative was launched in 2006. The group has already donated about 6.5 million of those items to refugees and other people in need in 25 countries. In February 2011, FR formed a global partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to expand these efforts.