STORY: Two Young Mozambicans turn "trash" into luxury products
DATELINE: July 28, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:36
LOCATION: Maputo
CATEGORY: SOCIETY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of store items
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Portuguese): WACY ZACARIAS, Store owner
3. various of store items
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Portuguese): DJAMILA DE SOUSA, Store owner
5. various of store items
 
STORYLINE:
 
Sustainable fashion is an increasingly popular trend in the fashion world as people become more and more aware of the impact of the textile industry on the environment.
 
And it was with that in mind that the young women Djamila de Sousa and Wacy Zacarias created the Nkaringana-Woogui project in Mozambique in 2008.
 
The company has a store in Maputo and exports its products to South Africa, Japan and Portugal, and is now considering exporting to the Chinese mainland. They use local materials and techniques associated with technology to produce their articles. These articles have drawings of endangered animals as a way of raising awareness of environmental prevention.
 
In addition to creating jobs, the brand also works with local communities to turn trash into fashion products.
 
SOUNDBITE 1 (Portuguese): WACY ZACARIAS, Store owner
"Because we were starting a new way of doing things, at the time there were no other sustainable fashion brands, we were working to propose the possibility, so it was a way of waking up this interest in using crafts as a fashion dictator or fashion guide."
 
SOUNDBITE 2 (Portuguese): DJAMILA DE SOUSA, Store owner
"Both me and Wacy, we have some background in sustainable fashion and in the Mozambican context because there is also a lot of lack of resources in the fashion area, we had to reinvent and create many things from scratch, so for us, it made perfect sense to implement more and more this practice of sustainable fashion and using the resources that we have available here in Mozambique in the best way."
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Maputo.
(XHTV)