According to The Columbus Dispatch’s article “U2’s Bono Teams with Miami University Students on T-shirt Project,” a clothing company founded by Irish rocker Bono and his wife has teamed up with Ohio college students on a business project designed to help developing countries.
The clothing company was founded in 2005 with the intention of producing clothing in developing countries, thereby providing increased jobs to those areas.
The article says “similar sentiments have led major companies to try to help developing areas through business solutions and universities to offer courses covering social responsibility.”
According to the article, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University buys blank T-shirts for a certain price and then re-sells them for a higher price, creating a profit. The proceeds are then used to help build trade and employment in Africa and throughout the world.
The article says the students participating in the project have sold 2,600 shirts since the mission began in October. All money made from the shirts goes back to the Center, which puts the funds back into the program.
Though the project began at Miami University of Ohio, it is expected to spread to other universities around the world.
The Lantern supports this cause because it not only shows a sense of leadership among college students, but it also provides another avenue by which people can contribute to economic change aside from politics and voting according to foreign policy issues. As Bono’s wife says in the article, “We don’t just vote and affect change at the ballot box, we can vote and effect change with the dollar in our pocket and how we use it, and you are leading the way.”
Social change and responsibility are good lessons. On one hand, the idea of selling T-shirts for economic change offers a sense of responsibility in which individuals can become actively involved in making changes through more than just voting. In another sense, the task of selling T-shirts to provoke change can be a positive career development experience, as well.
At The Lantern, we believe this project would translate well to the spirit of social activism and political change we have at Ohio State. Campus organizations should collaborate on a cooperative effort to bring this and other campaigns like it to our university, so we may help students from other universities make the world a better place.
