It's time to stand together to protect the rights of garment workers in Bangladesh!
The Awaj Foundation is an NGO advocating for garment workers’ rights and supporting around 600,000 workers in Bangladesh, but recent funding cuts threaten the future of this vital organisation. After 22 years of fighting for labour rights, Awaj faces a critical crisis. A 25-30% loss in funding has forced the organisation to stop essential programs, close offices, and lay off staff.
The lack of funds puts at risk not only our organisation and others facing similar challenges, but also the rights of the workers we protect. Without Awaj and similar advocacy groups, vulnerable workers could face increased exploitation and deteriorating conditions, reversing years of progress in labour rights.
Now is the time to act! We must ensure that grassroots organisations like Awaj can continue their work towards structural transformation to end exploitation and advocate for a fairer industry where people come before profits.
Your support is crucial! By donating, you help sustain Awaj’s work to empower workers and promote better futures. Regular donations would help us become more financially sustainable, further strengthening our mission. Even a small monthly contribution can create a lasting impact.
Join us in this fight for justice! Donate today and amplify the voices of garment workers! Together, we can create a more equitable industry and future!
To learn more about the impact of these funding cuts, check out this video.
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Our Story
Awaj Foundation was established in 2003 out of the urgent need to protect workers’ rights in the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh. Founded by former child worker and labour organiser Nazma Akter, Awaj Foundation is driven by the vision of decent work, dignified lives and gender equity in the industrial sectors of Bangladesh.
The RMG sector in Bangladesh provides employment opportunities to over three million, mostly unskilled, poor women. Comprising over 80% of the country’s export earnings, the sector makes an enormous contribution to the country’s economy. However, the benefits of this highly productive sector have not been equally distributed. Poor working conditions and labour and human rights abuses at factories remain widespread. Moreover, increasing global competition has led to a race to the bottom and compromises in workers’ rights in order to reduce production costs. The catastrophic consequences of this were made evident with the Rana Plaza collapse, which was the worst ever industrial incident to hit the garment industry, resulting in the deaths of over 1,100 workers.
The word “awaj” means sound / voice in the Bengali. We believe that collective action and strengthening the voices of the workers is the best way to address the problems facing the RMG sector in Bangladesh and globally. Awaj Foundation raises awareness on the issues facing garment workers, trains workers on their rights and responsibilities under national and international legal frameworks and builds their capacity to take leadership and negotiate for better working conditions. As a women-led organisation, gender-equity and addressing gender-based violence is one of the main priorities of Awaj Foundation and this is a cross-cutting theme in all our interventions.
While working on labour rights violations, we realised that workers have a diverse range of needs related to reproductive health, other health services, domestic violence, education for their children, and more. Awaj have been taking initiatives to address these problems and in recent years, our work has also expanded to include providing support to workers migrating for RMG sector work abroad. Through our offices and community centres, we have been providing support to over 600,000 workers across Bangladesh.
Set up your monthly donation today and help sustain Awaj’s work to empower workers and promote better futures. Your donation can make a meaningful difference in workers' lives.
To learn more: awajfoundation.org
A Needle & Some Thread: The Story of Awaj Foundation