Local guardians of clothing sustainability, Razia Ansari and Illiaz Mohammed, are spreading their wings to conquer some of society’s biggest threats – homelessness, food scarcity, and women’s issues.
The founders of award-winning clothing and textile recycling company RAIS Industries, Ms Ansari and Mr Mohammed have now created Guardians of Tomorrow.
The husband-and-wife duo run two op-shops under the Guardians brand – Thrift Store in Logan Central Plaza, and RIA Mission at Logan Central – as well as a variety of emergency, education and food programs.
“We’ve always been giving – even without the charity,” Ms Ansari said.
“We started Guardians of Tomorrow after seeing how much help is needed here in Logan.”
They established RAIS Industries in 2010, aiming to eliminate the millions of tonnes of clothing that winds up in landfill every year.
“We saw there were a lot of people in the community in need of food,” Mr Mohammed said.
Or even a “sheet to sleep in”, Ms Ansari added.
“Many low-income families struggle to afford food,” she said.
“So, we asked: how can we help the community more?”
From this ambition, Guardians of Tomorrow was born.
In just two months the charity has planted its feet in Logan’s grassroots community.
Ms Ansari and Mr Mohammed run a free street feed every Thursday night, drawing in “large queues.”
Mr Mohammed said the aim was to run the service 365 days of the year.
“Everyone’s going through something – we don’t judge,” he said.
Their RIA Missions op-shop has free food available every day, and they also offer emergency clothing for those in urgent need.
All profits go to supporting women’s empowerment, homelessness, and a school fruit-feed program.
“We provide fruit to local schools because we’ve found that some families find it hard to provide fresh fruits to their kids for morning tea,” Ms Ansari said.
“We also want to introduce a lunch program, because some kids go to school with nothing to eat.”
The duo said they were desperate to grow the organisation in order tackle issues on a larger scale.
To do so they’ve called for the help of local charities and organisations, hoping to collaborate and “do more good”.
“In 20 years from now, we don’t want these issues around,” Mr Mohammed said.
“We were lucky and blessed, so we want to give back to the community.”
Those requiring clothing, food or assistance can contact the Guardians of Tomorrow team at info@guardiansoftomorrow.org.au or 0435114468.
