Inditex donates €8.5 million to Caritas to support social employment

Spanish multinational clothing company, Inditex, will contribute €8.5 million to Caritas during the next three years, continuing the organization’s job initiative for those in danger of social exclusion and bolstering its clothing campaign. The two organizations’ presidents, Pablo Isla, and Manuel Bretón, signed the new agreements at Inditex’s headquarters in Arteixo (La Corua), in a ceremony that was also attended by the NGO’s general secretary, Natalia Peiro.

Pablo Isla, executive chairman of Inditex, singled out the partnership as “one of the Group’s most important initiatives due to its social impact and environmental relevance.” On the one hand, he emphasized its effectiveness, noting that “it has generated 2,500 jobs to help integrate people at risk of exclusion into the workplace, providing 2,500 examples of hope, tenacity, and new horizons for families.”

For his part, Manuel Bretón said that with the new direction Caritas is taking with its social economy initiatives, it will continue to help us foster a society based on the promotion of human rights, dignity, cooperation, and justice, framed by care and respect for the environment.

Natalia Peiro, said that this kind of cooperation is consistent with Europe’s 2020 vision for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, particularly for young people.

In accordance with the conditions of the extended partnership agreed, Inditex will channel €5 million through Caritas toward programs supporting the social economy, skill development, and entrepreneurship between now and 2022 in order to promote work access for the least privileged in Spain. Since 2011, Inditex has allocated approximately €11.5 million to this employment program, resulting in the employment of more than 2,500 vulnerable persons and the completion of nearly 1.2 million hours of certified training by more than 4,600 people.

Inditex has also promised to donate €3.5 million to Caritas’ clothing drive, which will collect discarded clothing and shoes for recycling or reuse in a cycle that promotes both hiring and integrating individuals who are in danger of exclusion.

According to the model, the usable clothing and footwear are either given away free of charge to Caritas clients or sold at enticing rates in the chain of non-profit shops, collecting money for charitable causes. Products that cannot be used again are sent for recycling, ideally to produce high-quality fibers that can be utilized to create new clothing.

The new funding being provided by Inditex to this line of the initiative will be used primarily to install 300 new on-street clothing collection containers in various Spanish cities, to enhance the traceability systems at the foundation, and to increase awareness of the Caritas chain of used clothing stores.

The installation of more than 1,800 collection containers, the collection of more than 48,000 tonnes of clothing, and the donation of 1.8 million items to the Caritas chain of charity shops have all been made possible thanks to Inditex’s €3.5 million donation over the past three years to this clothing management project. The funds have also made it possible to invest in the garment sorting facilities run by the Caritas retail network in Barcelona, Bilbao, and Valencia.