Children’s Place boosts Rana Plaza fund

US retailer Children’s Place, has contributed another $2 million to the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, narrowing the shortfall to $2.7 million.

The fund was set up to provide assistance to victims of the 2013 disaster when 1129 workers were crushed to death when a multistorey building full of sweatshops collapsed.

The Children’s Place contribution followed another of $1.1 million by Italy’s Benetton earlier this month and $100,000 from H&M, which never actually sourced any clothes from the complex.

Last Thursday, Children’s Place working with the ILO convened a conference call of major brands and retailers in an attempt to fill the funding gap by the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster.  This call raised over $1 million in donations to the fund. In addition to those donations, Children’s Place contributed another $2 million to the fund, taking its total contribution to the compensation fund to $2.5 million.

“We have been calling on brands to work together to collectively resolve the funding crisis for months, and we welcome the initiative of The Children’s Place in doing so now,” said Sam Maher of the Clean Clothes Campaign.

This last minute initiative coincided with a Global Day of Action, for which activists participated in actions around the world, calling on all brands sourcing from Bangladesh to fill the current funding gap in compensation immediately, and to sign the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. There were major events and demonstrations in at least 20 countries.  Global actions included a mass demonstration held by trade unions and garment workers federations in Dhaka, a public art installation forming a concert of sewing machines in Genova, Italy, demonstrations outside stores including Mango, JC Penney, Zara, and Walmart in the US, and a flashmob outside stores in Berlin.