INVISIBLE Sisters is a livelihood project supported by the FWA-UK. It is a social enterprise that works with urban poor women to produce designer fashion products from plastic waste through handicraft production techniques. The name INVISIBLE stems from the several unseen aspects of our economy and society. Here it is used to describe the waste material rescued from land-fills and the solid waste pollution of landscapes and waterways, and from the participation of poor, urban women who are unable to participate in the formal economy—the unseen and therefore INVISIBLE aspects of our economy and society.
In two short years, INVISIBLE has:
- Provided small but needed income to more than 100 poor women in Metro Manila, working in their homes and communities.
- Recycled more than 100,000 used plastic shopping bags—keeping them from landfills and clogging our drains.
- Sold over 12,000 products both as exports and to local retailers.
- Encouraged handicraft techniques — women crochet products from reused plastic shopping bags, old VHS tapes, and electronic waste products.
The purpose is especially to ensure that the products are not ‘sympathy’ products, but something that people are attracted to on the basis of their quality and their design.
FWA-UK shares the goals of Invisible Sisters: reduce waste; reduce poverty; environmental awareness; improve skills; produce good design and high quality products that can compete with commercial consumer products.
