YEN NSONO GU GYAM | Our Intestines Are on Fire

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/kantamanto-market-fire-relief On December 15th, 2020 a fire razed part of Kantamanto Market leaving over 200 secondhand retailers, tailors, dyers, cleaners and up-cyclers devastated during the busiest shopping week of the year, after an already difficult year. Your donations will help these secondhand experts pay off debt and provide for their families during this difficult time! What is Kantamanto Market? Kantamanto Market is the largest secondhand market in West Africa and possibly the largest in the world. Every week roughly 15 million garments exported by the Global North (the majority being used clothing donations plus some deadstock & store returns) flow through Kantamanto. Here there are roughly 30,000 people who labor six to seven days a week doing all they can to recirculate the Global North’s discards. Contrary to popular belief, the global secondhand trade is not charity. Kantamanto's retailers pay a hefty price for this clothing. Bales weighing 120lbs are purchased by retailers for anywhere from $75 to $500 a piece. Many retailers go into debt taking out loans with interest rates as high as 35% to buy bales. This is why many refer to their job as a “gambling job”. Retailers have no insight into the quality of a bale when they purchase it because they are compressed and wrapped in opaque plastic and wire. Indeed, much of the clothing cannot be sold. Roughly 40% of the clothing that enters Kantamanto leaves as waste.