Our consumerist culture has taught us that keeping up with fashion trends is far more important than considering the damage discarded clothing can cause to our environment. It is shocking but true that only 12 per cent of your castoffs make it to being responsibly recycled. Most find their way to landfills where they contribute to polluting the environment.
For Vijaya Josephine Pais, educating people on responsible practices in fashion consumption is essential to ensure a sustainable future. Although the Good Karma Treasure Shop, Vijaya’s thrift store, was birthed out of a personal need to downsize, it is her passion to change the consumerist mindset that fuels the enterprise. From her time as a flight attendant with Emirates Airlines, Vijaya had collected 97 pairs of shoes! “I couldn’t find a suitable place to donate them.
Options like orphanages and old-age homes wouldn’t have any use for my clothes. That’s when I got a few friends to donate their items too, and we held our first pop-up sale in December 2016, at House of Lloyds, Candolim, with all the money raised going to an orphanage. I continued hosting pop-ups across Goa, raising funds for various NGOs.
” After venturing into photography , writing and digital marketing, in 2014, Vijaya created a Facebook group called Offbeat Goa to share fun events. The main goal was to help the community thrive, support small businesses and create awareness regarding sustainable practices. The Good Karma Treasure Shop’s fi.