Humana

Humana places itself in the frontline of the struggle for development and is one of the biggest clothing collectors in the Netherlands. With the profits of the clothing collection and the support of private individuals and companies, Humana supports projects in the areas of education, healthcare and economical growth. The central points of these projects are to share knowledge and skills. This happens in cooperation with local partner organizations in Southern Africa.

Collecting clothes and selling
Humana collects used clothes and shoes via 1.000 clothes containers in over 83 Dutch cities. About 90% of the collected clothes are resold to textile and sorting companies in Europe. They resell the clothing through second hand stores or recycle the clothes and use them as a raw material for other products.

Development projects
The money that is made is donated by Humana to local partner organizations in Southern Africa. They use it for developing projects such as education, healthcare and economical growth. The sharing of knowledge and skills has a central role in these projects. With the help of these projects people are able to self develop and be able to self sustain.

Fundraising in Africa
Approximately 10% of the collected clothes are directly donated to the partner organizations. They sell the clothes as a way of fundraising, via secondhand clothing stores in their own countries.
There are educational possibilities for the employees and a four weekly discount system makes sure that even people with little to spend are able to buy good quality clothing. This is also a way of fundraising that makes sure that projects, as listed above, can be put to practice. The local organizations also make sure they have their own sources of income with which they are not totally depended on funds from western countries.

Sustainable development
With these activities Humana puts in the effort to improve the living circumstances of people in poor rural areas. Lasting results can only be accomplished when people are able to realize these themselves. Information, training and sharing knowledge are essential and make sure that the people themselves can work on sustainable development.

Humana is a member of the Humana People to People Federation, an international network of independent organizations in Europe, North and Latin America, Africa and Asia. Worldwide they cooperate in 225 development projects in education, healthcare and economical development. With these projects they reach 7,5 million people.

You can find more information on www.humana.org