JustShirts

Social Responsibility

We believe that we have a responsibility to our cooperative partners, their children and the communities in which they live and work. Besides ensuring that our cooperative partners are receiving a living wage, we dedicate any excess resources that we have to providing educational and social opportunities for their children. The following is a textual and photographic record of some of these activities:

 

May 2008, A Trip to the Beach: Incredible as it may seem, the majority of the children have never had a chance to go to the ocean even though it is only 45 minutes away from San Salvador. To celebrate the departure of a boat container of 35,000 shirts, Justshirts invited all the Madres and their children for a day at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter 2008, Medical Help:The Madres all have social security coverage which gives them access to doctors and medicine. However sometimes this coverage isn't enough, especially when specialized treatment and medicines are needed. At Justshirts we have adopted the policy of sharing the risks in these cases. In these medical emergencies, Justshirts pays the portion of these extra costs that the women, individually or collectively, cannot absorb. The most recent cases are the daughter of Ruth (who needed access to a medical specialist as well as specialized asthma and sinus medication) and the daughter of Consuela (who needed immediate access to a CT scan for a head injury). The good news is that the daughter of Ruth has fully recovered and the daughter of Consuela is undergoing further testing.

 

 

Fall 2007, Christmas Party: What would be Christmas without a party and toys! Justshirts invited the Madres and their children to a popular local restaurant to celebrate. The children were very happy because "eating out" isn't an everyday occurance and because they received both toys and functional new backpacks to go to school.

 

 

 

Fall 2007, Cuchabal: The Cuchabal is a local micro credit lending practice. Each member contributes a certain amount of money on a bi-weekly basis and then one member receives this money with which to make a major purchase that would otherwise be impossible to make. Justshirts contributes a share to this Cuchabal.

 

Winter 2007, School Supplies: Education is extremely important for the Madres but often they don't have the financial resources to purchase all of the required school supplies. Justshirts has for the last two years purchased these supplies for the children.

 

If you would like to support a specific initiative or help more generally, please write claudia@justshirts.ca!