In 2021, Ankole Women in development Association (KWODA) launched a Sustainable Fashion Forum (SFF) that brings women together to work for an urgent transition back to ‘slow’ fashion, minimizing and mitigating the detrimental environmental impacts, so as to improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain. The forum is working to engage women to cut down clothes waste as a key for a sustainable fashion industry. Members of the forum have put up a second hand clothes shop in Mbarara City where donated clothes are sold from. The forum encourages women across Ankole Sub-Region in Western Uganda to donate
unwanted clothes to the shop. The forum also encourages women to wear secondhand clothes instead of buying new ones. Women are encouraged to donate their unwanted clothes instead of sending them to landfill and incineration. The current ways clothing is produced and sold is unsustainable and needs transformation. The fashion industry is facing increasing global scrutiny of its
environmentally polluting supply chain operations. Despite the widely publicized environmental impacts, however, the industry continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion, which relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption and
short-lived garment use. There are environmental impacts at critical points in the textile and fashion value
chain, from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO 2 emissions and textile waste. Impacts from the fashion industry include million tonnes of waste produced per year and trillion litres of water consumed. On the basis
of these environmental impacts, there is need for fundamental changes in the fashion business model, including a deceleration of manufacturing and the introduction of sustainable practices throughout the supply chain, as well a shift in
consumer behavior-namely, decreasing clothing purchases and increasing garment lifetimes. These changes stress the need for an urgent transition back to ‘slow’ fashion, minimizing and mitigating the detrimental environmental impacts, so as to
improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain. This is the core goal of the Sustainable Fashion Forum (SFF)
Sustainable Fashion Forum (SFF) is implementing several activities including the following
1) Organizing monthly promotions “1Cloth, 1 dollar” during which women will be
encouraged to donate unwanted clothes
2) Organizing fashion parties during which women are encouraged to donate unwanted clothes and wear second hand clothes.
3) Organizing a fashion week to connect designers and women together. The fashion week allows and encourages women to wear second hand clothes bought from the Fashion Forum Shops
4) Offering incentives to women who donates unwanted clothes and those who wears second clothes.
5) Organizing Sustainable Future awards to recognize women in Ankole Sub-Region who donate the highest number of unwanted clothes during the year.
6) Organize charity week during which donated and unsold clothes are given to the needy like widows, orphans and refugees
7) Conduct clothing drives during which gently used and unwanted clothes are collected
8) Organizing monthly second hand clothes weekly markets where women are encouraged to buy clothes from the SFF shops

9) Organizing events “give old clothes a second chance” during which women are encouraged to donate and wear second hand clothes
10) Organize “Give Your Clothes New Life” events during which women who buy clothes from the SFF shops are given tips on how to make the clothes they buy from the shops last as long as possible.