YouthOvaFashionWaste Webinar and Digital Contest Campaign: Where Youth Voices Unravel the Truth About Fashion Waste
From discarded clothes to climate injustice, we’re redefining the narrative on waste colonialism and circular fashion in Ghana.
YouthOvaFashionWaste is a creative campaign and digital learning project led by the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM), inspired by Pulitzer Center–supported reporting by Anne Whiting on fashion waste and waste colonialism: Secondhand Synthetics, Sinister Secret
Through three dynamic webinars (X Space), and a youth digital storytelling contest, we are bringing together youths, sustainable fashion innovators, creatives, scientists & researchers, policymakers, and journalists across Ghana to rethink how our fashion habits and global trade systems affect people, the planet, and our shared future.
This initiative invites you to learn, share, create, and act toward a circular fashion economy: one that respects culture, community, and the environment.
Main Objectives
The YouthOvaFashionWaste Webinar & Digital Contest aims to:
- Amplify Pulitzer-supported journalism on fashion waste and waste colonialism.
- Provide a platform for young people to engage experts, policymakers, and grassroots leaders in discussions on sustainable fashion, waste governance, and community resilience.
- Inspire youth-led creative campaigns and advocacy initiatives that raise awareness.
- Strengthen linkages between youth movements, government, civil society, and industry actors working toward sustainable fashion systems in Ghana
Why It Matters
Problem
- Fast fashion
- Overconsumption
- Land Grabbing
Impact
- Fast fashion
- Overconsumption
- Land Grabbing
Solution
- Shaping consumer behavior
- Circular fashion
- Digital Storytelling
Every year, millions of tons of discarded clothing end up in Africa’s largest secondhand clothing market, Kantamanto. Much of it is unsellable and left to either rot in landfills, wash up on beaches, or, in the end, turn into microplastics, causing ecological hazards. In Accra, piles of textile waste choke waterways, destroy ecosystems, and threaten livelihoods.
But the story does not end there. Youth across the continent are rewriting this narrative, transforming textile waste into opportunity, from upcycling innovation to grassroots advocacy.
YouthOvaFashionWaste aims to support the voices of more change-makers with tools and visibility to push for a just and sustainable fashion future.
Learn More
About UsRegister for the Next Webinar
Join HereJoin the contest
ParticipateJoin the Conversation
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