The question is on karen tranberg hansen's book salaula. the world of Essay

The question is on karen tranberg hansen's book salaula. the world of secondhand clothing and zambia - Essay Example The country, which takes its name from the river Zambezi, has been on a path of continual economic decline due to the continuing low worldwide market for copper (the main export of Zambia) and a reduction in the country’s copper reserves. After late 19th century, the flourishing trade in secondhand clothing in the West (in London, a great clothes market rejoiced in the name of ‘Petticoat Lane’) dried up mainly because imports of new clothing from developing countries were easily available and affordable. Of total world exports of secondhand clothing (estimated by the United Nations in 1995 at 1.4 billion, the U.S. being the biggest exporter), about a quarter goes to sub-Saharan Africa. In the early 1990s secondhand clothes were America’s eighth largest export to the region. Britons are known to discard about 1 million tons of old clothes each year: this figure does not include an estimated 200,000 tons of old clothes that are recycled to be worn again or used in the industry. There are two social groups discussed in the book. The first is â€Å"Rainbow Children’s Hospice† in Leicester in the U.K that raises funds for charity. The second is â€Å"Scope†, an organization in the U.K to help people with cerebral palsy. Scope has about 900 clothes banks in the U.K; 760 of them are owned directly by it; the balance 140 are owned by sub-dealers (such as Ragtex U.K located in Ashby-da-la-Zouch) licensed to use the Scope name. Each sub-dealer donates  £100 a year to Scope’s charity fund. Dana Simons, the owner of the blouse that makes the historic journey in the novel, is a high school teacher who teaches home economics, food and nutrition in a school in Leicester. Dana is also a professional fundraiser at the Rainbow Children’s Hospice in the same city. Gerald Commel is the Managing Director of Ragtex U.K, sub-dealer of Scope’s clothes banks, which operates a textile recycling plant