Gucci donates scrap fabric to migrant dressmaking shop

ROME » Nigerian women who were trafficked to Italy to work as prostitutes have found work in a handbag and dressmaking shop that recently received some top-notch raw materials: 4,000 meters (4,374 yards) of leftover fabric from Gucci.

The initiative was announced Wednesday in Rome, complete with a fashion show by the Nigerian dressmakers and a group of Italian design students who helped teach them to sketch and sew the designs, which mix Gucci silks, satins and cotton with bright African prints.

Sister Rita Giaretta, who runs a home for rescued migrants in the southern city of Caserta, said the aim of the project was to give the women dignified work so they aren’t reliant on handouts.

“Giving them their dignity means putting them back on their feet and believing in themselves and not seeing themselves only as in a situation of need,” Giaretta said.

The New Hope tailoring cooperative, which has a storefront shop in Caserta, was born in 2004 as a project affiliated with Giaretta’s residence and until now made mostly bags and accessories.

CBS’ Bill Whitaker tells inmate grads to seize their place

OSSINING, N.Y. » CBS News’ Bill Whitaker has spoken at college commencements before, but never at one where most graduates weren’t free to leave with their families.

Whitaker, who has done several stories on criminal justice in four years at “60 Minutes,” urged 44 men who earned college degrees Wednesday while inmates at New York’s Sing Sing state prison to go “seize your place in the universe” with what they’ve learned.

Sing Sing sits on the banks of the Hudson River 30 miles north of New York City, the prison for which the phrases “up the river” and “The Big House” were coined. For two decades it has offered inmates the chance to