The Clothing Bank

The Clothing Bank was established in February 2010. We achieve our vision through an empowering holistic approach to supporting unemployed women and men with the skills needed to start small businesses so that they can become financially and socially independent. Our business model establishes strategic partnerships with most of South Africa's major retailers who donate all of their excess (customer returns, store damages, end of season and bulk rejections) merchandise to our programme. We use this waste to help unemployed South Africans to start small informal retail trading businesses. In our core Clothing Bank model, we carefully select self-motivated individuals and enroll them in our 2-year enterprise development programme. Our programme includes an income generating opportunity as well as exposure to relevant skills that support sustainability. The training includes business, finance, computer, digital marketing and life skills as well as additional support through coaching and mentoring.