Collaboration Collective News Printmaking

Drop Dead x Akin

posted by Marcroy March 2, 2018

Drop Dead is teaming up with the clothing company Akin to provide school uniforms for children in the developing world, so that they can receive the education they deserve and need.

Drop Dead was approached by Ben Howells who is the founder of Akin, about working on this project. In most developing countries it is a legal requirement for children to wear a uniform to be able to attend school. Families are living on just a few dollars a day and therefore can not afford to buy uniforms – meaning that a great number of children are missing out on vital education and are not attending school. There are around 67 million children that are currently unable to attend school as their families income can’t provide enough for uniforms or school supplies.

Costa Rica’s poverty rate has dropped down from 22.4% to 21.7% from 2014 to 2015 however the extreme poverty rate rose from 5.8% to 7.2%. This is the highest recorded rate in the last 60 years. In this project the children will actively take part in earning their school uniforms by contributing to a service project. From helping plant gardens, cleaning ederly people’s home, painting buildings. The uniforms are also being outsourced by Akin within the Costa Rican area which means that it will also be helping the local economy.

There is two ways for everyone to participate and get involved with this project. The first one being you can simply donate to the project. The second is signing up and sending a blank garment to Drop Dead’s in house print studio to have it printed on the reverse with a randomly selected Drop Dead design. Through every donation and sign up one child will be provided with a school uniform which means that you will also provide his education!

Drop dead and Akin are donating 100% of the proceeds to the project. If you would like to get involved please visit the project page or help them spread the word.