Whole Foods has teamed up with RIJI Green.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: In commemoration of January being Human Trafficking Month, Whole Foods Market has teamed up with an organization called RIJI Green to sell tote bags that have been made by victims of human trafficking in Kolkata, India.
RIJI Green bas been working in India to provide support and opportunities for victims of human trafficking, the overwhelming majority of whom are women. By employing them as seamstresses to make bags and other products, the women RIJI Green works with receive fair wages, healthcare, daycare, literacy training and a supportive network to help them become thriving survivors of human trafficking.
Speaking to The American Bazaar, RIJI Green President Anna Leung explained that the organization already had networks in place within Kolkata, making it easier to have the Whole Foods bags produced.
“There are generations of human trafficking victims in Kolkata,” said Leung. “Girls are often born into slavery, like their mothers and grandmothers before them. We pay them above minimum wage and give them literacy training so that if they ever choose to stop being seamstresses, they have the ability to find other kinds of work.”
Whole Foods is selling the tote bags for $18 each – the cost covers what the women who create the bags are paid, and also covers the cost of their living and training expenses.
Leung was unable to provide a specific rupee amount, however, but did say that each bag purchased continues to fund RIJI Green’s working in empowering the victims of human trafficking.
“I really hope to expand to other areas of world where human trafficking continues to be a problem,” said Leung. “Especially here in America, where a quarter-million children are engaged in human trafficking.”
Leung explained how truck stops, particularly in Ohio, have become a festering ground for pimps who will send underage girls to knock on the doors of truckers who are passing through. The girls are forced to perform dehumanizing acts and subsequently pocket absolutely none of the money that the truckers end up paying them — all the cash goes to their pimps.
“I’ve reached out to several non-profits within the US,” said Leung, who hopes to have some movement on that front occur in the near future. Leung has also reached out to several factories in the US which could feasibly employ women who are survivors of human trafficking in a manner to similar to the system being used in Kolkata, but has so far been unable to find one.
The bags are available for purchase in Whole Foods locations across Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, and New Jersey (Marlton, NJ and Princeton, NJ only). RIJI Green and Whole Foods Market hopes to inspire customers to act and end human trafficking.
“Collectively,” said Leung, “our purchasing power can have tremendous impact in eliminating poverty, preventing slavery, changing lives, transforming communities and creating a fairer world.”