Gildan Partners with World Vision Bangladesh

(Image: www.worldvision.org)

Gildan Activewear, a manufacturer of blank apparel, announces it has signed an 18-month-long partnership with World Vision Bangladesh, representing an investment of $52,000 to support the economic empowerment of women in the country. The investment will be used to provide training to women who wish to enhance their ability to manage their personal finances.

According to World Vision, by improving financial literacy among women, the program aims to reduce the prevailing gender gap in Bangladesh as women begin to feel confident in their ability to deal with financial institutions, use financial services, manage savings, and ultimately help steer the path towards gender equality.

Gildan already has a successful decade-long partnership with World Vision Honduras, with investments totaling approximately $600,000, and it is now looking to extend this partnership into another of its key strategic manufacturing hubs.

“Our partnership with World Vision Honduras has been immensely successful in supporting childhood education and developing teacher training programs to strengthen the education system within our communities in Honduras,” says Claudia Sandoval, vice president of corporate citizenship at Gildan. “Drawing confidence from this successful partnership with World Vision, we now hope to make similar developments in our Bangladesh community by enabling women to take more ownership of their finances and heighten their capacity to be independent.”

According to Gildan, in addition to financial education, this program forms the foundation for implementing other such programs in the future that foster female empowerment, including advancing female health education and women’s leadership development.

“We are excited to be extending our partnership with World Vision and are confident that this initiative will allow us to move ahead in our journey toward making apparel better,” remarks Sandoval.