By Julia Wiklund
If I told you that there is a way to travel for free and simultaneously educate yourself on vital topics and meet people from all over the world, would you then say yes to going? Well, I did, and I am not disappointed at all.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be an ambassador for the “Circle of Fashion” project in Pekalongan, Indonesia. It was an unforgettable experience that started simply with an application online. A post on Instagram informed that there was one spot remaining for the training course, that was almost entirely covered by Erasmus+. For a student like me, that was the factor that confirmed my decision to go. Erasmus+ founds youth programs that take place all over the world. The purpose behind Erasmus+ funding these trips is to engage and educate young people about vital subjects and to reduce social issues.
The Training Course
On the 18th of August, I met up with about 25 other youth ambassadors from Sweden, Lithuania, Cambodia, and Indonesia to collectively study circular fashion. The meaning was to gain more knowledge and experience but also to exchange thoughts among the participants. This would further build bonds between the countries to be able to tackle the realness of the vital topic: The circle of fashion together.
The Vital Subject: Fast Fashion
The topic is now more important than ever due to the fast fashion industry currently being the second largest polluter in the world. The social issue of consuming clothing pieces that accept bad working conditions and supporting brands that don’t put climate change as a top priority has to change for the better. Due to Indonesia being one of the major export countries in the world when it comes to fast fashion, it was ultimately the chosen place for the project.
The Field Trips
To gain an understanding of how vital the change to a slow fashion mindset is, the seven-day training course started with lectures on the subject and was followed by group discussions. To put the theory into practice, there were different field trips included in the schema. One visit was to a garment factory specializing in the technic of Batik, a way of creating patterns with melted wax. In this factory, the workers earned about five euros a day, they classified this factory as one of the better ones. Another visit was made to a part of the city that, around ten years from now, can end up below sea level due to climate change. Every year the people living there have to raise the ground level to save their homes.
Final Thoughts
This entire project sent my emotions on a rollercoaster ride, alternating between joy and fear. Joy because of all the great memories I got to make, and fear because of the realness of the fashion industry.
However, if someone asked me to make the same trip again, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes. Therefore, I highly recommend you do the same. Take the chance.
