Bono Partners with US College to Promote Fair Trade

|PIC1|Two years ago, U2 front man Bono and his wife founded a clothing company in support of developing countries around the world. Now that company has partnered with college students in Ohio, and they expect to roll out to other campuses around the world.

Students at Miami University's Centre for Social Entrepreneurship buy blank cotton T-shirts made in Africa and re-sell the shirts to other organisations, making profit and providing a market to help build trade and employment in Africa.

Bono, the frontman for the U2 rock band, has gained international attention with his efforts to assist developing countries, especially in Africa. He and his wife, Ali Hewson, founded Edun Apparel Ltd in 2005 to produce clothing in developing countries, providing increased trade and jobs to those areas. The company, based in Dublin, stresses that its message is "trade, not aid."

Plans are being finalised to expand the Miami business model to other campuses, said Christine Driscoll, business development manager for edun Live, the sub-brand that consists of the T-shirt line. The company hopes 'edun Live on Campus', the Miami University pilot, will expand to at least 40 campuses by 2011.

"We don't just vote and effect change at the ballot box," Hewson told students in a recent visit to Miami University, a 14,385-student public university in southwest Ohio. "We can vote and effect change with the dollar in our pocket and how we use it, and you are leading the way."

Bono is currently in Davos, Switzerland this week, attending the five-day annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.