FASHION victims with a conscience can indulge their clothing habit in Andover next month when there will be a clothes swap in the Upper Guildhall.

On 25 October fashion lovers will be invited to celebrate a love of fashion by bringing along up to five items of clothing to swap for different items to take home.

Refreshments will be available, and all clothes swappers will be entered into a free raffle.

The clothes swap is part of Stop The Traffik’s Make Fashion Traffik-Free campaign. It is an an international organisation which works to disrupt and prevent human trafficking around the world.

Their Make Fashion Traffik-Free campaign invites fashion lovers throughout the world to join together; urging retailers to take action to ensure human trafficking is not present in their supply chain.

The event in Andover is being supported by the church.

Derrick Norton, Home Groups co-ordinator for St Mary’s Church in Andover, said: “We enjoy meeting in home groups to study the Bible, but what matters is living it out!

“Human trafficking takes various forms, and we want to encourage ourselves and you to do what we can to make a difference.”

Reverend Canon John Harkin, vicar of St Mary’s Church, said: “Like many people across our nation, Christians at St Mary’s abhor the criminal and degrading practice of buying and selling other human beings.

“This small initiative on a Saturday in our town centre, is a simple example of how we can work together to raise awareness of just one result of trafficking people, that of slave labour in the fashion industry.

“The clothes swap is part of the Make Fashion Traffik-Free campaign, so we invite you to join us in playing a small part in helping to stop the sale of people.”

Women are the biggest victims of trafficking and in in one Indian state alone, Tamil Nadu, 200,000 young women and girls between the ages of 14-23 are being trafficked into the spinning, weaving and dyeing mills under the Sumangali scheme, which is promoted as an ‘apprenticeship’ opportunity to learn new skills and earn a fair wage.

They are fed with false hope and promises of a good job and income and often end up trapped in factories for up to five years, where they work long hours in dangerous and hostile conditions, often without breaks and very little freedom. The cotton they weave is sold all over the world.

It is likely that it ends up in our local shops and used in many of our favourite brands.