The EDUN ONE T-shirts are launching in the U.K.

EDUN is a socially conscious clothing brand created by Ali Hewson, Bono and New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory. The company’s aim is to bring the issue of long-term sustainable employment to the forefront via the world of high fashion. The EDUN ONE shirts are made in Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in the world, of 100% African cotton.

Importantly, $10 of every EDUN ONE shirt goes to the ALAFA Fund, a program to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to garment workers and their immediate family in the African factories. Learn more about the shirts and the ALAFA Fund on this EDUN video.

The EDUN ONE shirts are already available in the States at Nordstroms, Edun and ONE for $40 each. If you are in the UK, please order form Edun.ie and if you are in the States, please order from the ONE.org Store.

I was able to go to the U.S. EDUN ONE T-shirt launch in NYC on September 15. See my live-blog post from the event.

According to the EDUN website:

In 1980 Africa had a 6% share of world trade. By 2002 this had dropped to just 2% despite the fact that Africa has 12 % of the world’s population.

If Africa could regain just an additional 1% share of global trade, it would earn $70 billion more in exports each year – more than three times what the region currently receives in international assistance. If in addition, all countries in East Asia, South Asia and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by 1%, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty.