Next week is World Anti Poverty Week. With this year’s focus on the Girl Child and today being International Day of the Girl Child, we wanted to show you how our Eco Max Brushes help women and children escape the poverty cycle.
“When you want to invest and create GDP,
there is no better or more effective investment –than investing in women.”
Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs
All our Eco Max Brushes are handmade in Sri Lanka and 95 percent of our workforce are women. A 2012 report by The World Bank into gender equality and development found that “Greater control over household resources by women can enhance countries’ growth prospects by changing spending patterns in ways that benefit children.”
Research suggests that women-headed households reinvest 90 percent of their income into their families, compared to 30 to 40 percent contributed by men.
Women rear children for success
The World Bank report also found “that evidence from developing countries shows that higher household incomes managed by women impact education opportunities for children, as well as the survival rates of girl children.”
Education is the key
One extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent; an extra year of secondary school boosts eventual wages a further 15 to 25 percent.
Breaking the Cycle
Women who are better educated participate in the labour market at higher levels than their less-educated counterparts and in turn they use their higher wages to benefit their children. In this way the pattern set by providing women control over their resources is repeated, creating a cycle of prosperity.
A matter of ImportAnts
Improving economic and educational opportunities for women and girls is only one part of eliminating poverty, but the evidence is clear that it works: investing in women and girls is an investment in a better future. That is why, in making our Eco Max Brushes, we choose to focus on providing a safe, happy work environment and a living wage. Supporting our women and their children and allowing them to be strong, self-reliant directors of their own destiny.
