OUR CHARITABLE INITIATIVES

It is hugely important to us to support the people who make Aspiga possible, as well as other causes close to our hearts.

Over the years, we’ve given much-needed loans to some of our small suppliers so they can build workshops and buy tools and machinery to grow their businesses.

We especially love to work with and support women. Our main sandal supplier is a woman who set up her business 10 years ago when she was just 23 years old. She has worked with us ever since.

Since the beginning of our journey we have chosen to use our voice to support initiatives where we can make positive change. Today we continue to take action and collaborate with a number of charities on a local, national, and international level.

We are delighted to share we donated £121,814 through charitable initiatives in 2023.

WANDSWORTH OASIS

Founded in 1989, Wandsworth Oasis is a series of charity shops in and around the Wandsworth borough. Purchasing from these shops contributes to the raising of money to help against stigma and prevention of HIV.

In December 2023, Aspiga donated items in a range of sizes and product categories to Wandsworth Oasis, hoping to aid in their battle against new HIV cases.

SMART WORKS

Smart Works is a UK based charity that uses the power of clothing to provide confidence to unemployed women and help them reach their full potential.

In May and December 2023, Aspiga donated a range of items that could be worn to interviews and help boost women’s confidence.

As a female founded company, we believe it is hugely important to empower other women so we hope to continue supporting this amazing charity with future donations.

WATER HARVEST

WaterHarvest, previously known as Wells for India, is a non-profit organisation that works with rural communities in India to help them build rainwater harvesting structures, so they can collect, filter and store water.

As an ethical brand we strive to make our clothes with organic cotton, but when this is not possible we have pledged to donate £1 - £2 of the profit to WaterHarvest.

Our donations help to provide clean water and good sanitation to families and schools. To put it into perspective, 1 water tank could provide a family of 6 clean water for 25 years.

BLUEBELLS SCHOOL

Bluebells is a rural primary school, near to our Kenyan suppliers, with 150 children. Each year we help to fund the salaries of the teachers, enabling children to get an education they otherwise wouldn't.

DAYS FOR GIRLS

Days for Girls is a charity with a mission to increase access to menstrual care and education, stopping stigma and limitations for girls and women across the world. 

Donated fabric is turned into reusable menstrual sanitary products for disadvantaged girls in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America; allowing women and girls to continue working and going to school during their menstrual cycles. 

Our most recent fabric donations have been made into the kits and will be distributed to women in Angola, who defuse mines. We strive to embed this initiative within our design process to help women across the globe, whilst reducing fabric wastage.

BOLINGBROKE ACADEMY

Bolingbroke Academy is a local secondary school and sixth form situated a mile from Aspiga’s HQ. We have donated a large box of left over fabrics, unsellable stock and scrap trims to their textile students, to help them with their studies.

By giving talks about careers in the fashion industry as well as implementing work experience opportunities, we will continue to nuture the relationship we have built together.

OUR BEACH CLEANS

We are proud to have been supporting beach cleans since 2019. In Kenya, 12 school children, along with our sandal supplier, volunteer for a monthly beach clean in Malindi, and in return Aspiga covers their school fees. This fantastic initiative ensures the school children receive an education they had previously been unable to afford. Outside of our beach clean they are constantly encouraging the rest of the village to look after their environment and surroundings.

What started as an initiative to drive awareness of World Water Day, has quickly become a regular activity in Kenya, as well as near our UK stores, and for our HQ team in London, filling bags with rubbish collected from the banks for the river Thames.

ELIMU SEWING PROJECT

Every young woman in rural Kenya should have the opportunity to learn a valuable trade. The Elimu Sewing Project helps women pursue a two-year training programme that gives them income-generating skills.

Since 2020 we have partnered with Elimu Sewing Project to use our leftover fabric - preventing wastage - to make our scrunchies, and bags for our sandals and belts.

Loving Humanity

Both our founder Lucy, and Aspiga proudly donated each month to Loving Humanity; a non-profit organisation created to support refugees and the health and wellbeing of girls and women.

Loving Humanity provides ready-to-ship micro-factories that produce washable and disposable sanitary products to those in need. By providing sanitary products they are restoring personal dignity where it’s been lost—in war zones, refugee camps and slums.Their factories are staffed by refugee or vulnerable local women who, through their work, find or rediscover their self-worth.

Every £5 donated helps to keep 10 girls in education, transforming their lives and helping them to learn, work and live with dignity.

RESTART AFRICA

Opened in 2014, located in Gilgil, Kenya, Restart Africa provides children with an education and a safe and healthy environment to grow and flourish in. The orphanage is entirely funded by donations and is now home to over a hundred children, most of whom have experienced severe trauma and violence often on the streets of Kenya.

On trips to Kenya, Lucy has donated up to seven suitcases of clothing and volunteered to teach art and reading.

We are proud to work with the Santana Women's Group, who supply some of our sandals and jewellery, and donate all profits to Restart Africa.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

On the 25th May 2020, we were horrified to learn that George Floyd was suffocated by a member of the police force in Minneapolis. Sadly his death was demonstrative of a much wider global issue of systematic racism. As a fair trade fashion brand, we do not tolerate prejudice and inequality and we always try to support marginalised communities.

We donated 5% of our online profits on the 2nd of June to three Black Lives Matters Charities; Black Lives Matter Global Network, The Bail Project and the NAACP.

BRITISH ASIAN TRUST: OXYGEN FOR INDIA EMERGENCY APPEAL

On the 1st & 2nd of May 2021, we donated 10% of our profits from ALL online orders placed to the 'Oxygen for India Emergency Appeal' by the British Asian Trust to help get as many oxygen concentrators to hospitals as quickly as possible.

WORLD WILDLIFE FOUNDATION

In 2020, we donated ALL profits from our ‘Box of Dinosaur Socks’ to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to help protect endangered species.

SEW PRETTY

Katya set up Sew Pretty in 2013 as a place to grow students’ sewing confidence and abilities, inspiring them to make their own garments and accessories. 

In August 2023 we donated left over and scrap fabrics ranging in prints, colour and sizes to contribute to these sewing classes. This helps us reduce waste and give back to communities close to our HQ in Battersea.

PROJECT PRELOVED

In August 2023 we donated left over and scrap fabrics ranging in prints, colour and sizes to Project Preloved. The charity offers beginner sewing workshops that give participants valuable life skills to make their clothes last longer through mending and upcycling.

As an ethical and sustainable brand, we encourage circularity at every step of a product's lifecycle.

LOVE NOT LANDFILL

Love Not Landfill is a non-profit campaign, run by ReLondon opening clothes banks around London encouraging people to donate their unwanted clothing. The clothes banks accept ANY kind of clothing or fabric. Good quality, wearable clothes are sorted and sent to second-hand markets around the world. Everything else, even an odd sock with a stain and a hole, will be used in another way, from car seat stuffing, insulation or blankets.

After sorting through all our scrap fabrics and donating where possible, some pieces were just too small to be of use. We recycled these offcuts with Love Not Landfill, making sure that even the tiniest scraps are not going to waste.