Photo Credit: Christine Redmond
PARIS, January 26, 2021: L'Oréal Women's Fund to donate €270,000 to global movement "Education For Women Now ("Women's access to education, it's now!") of the NGO Aide et Action. This movement, launched in January 2021, will enable 3 million marginalised women and girls in vulnerable situations in Africa, Asia and Europe to receive a quality education by 2025.
Education for Women NowAide et Action's first international philanthropic campaign aims to raise 20 million euros to support access to quality education for 3 million girls and women worldwide by 2025. The campaign was launched on January 17, 2021 through a live digital event, with the participation of personalities from the corporate world, the media and women's rights.
L'Oréal is the first corporate partner to support the campaign with a commitment of 000 50 million for 2021 to implement four Aide et Action projects in Madagascar, India, Senegal and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. This support is part of the L'Oréal Women's Fund, a 50 million euro philanthropic endowment fund to support grassroots associations that accompany women in vulnerable situations.
L'Oréal's commitment to supporting vulnerable women, especially those affected by the VCT-19 pandemic and its social and economic consequences, is in line with Aide et Action's focus on using education as a solution to reduce long-term inequalities, currently exacerbated by the pandemic.
" The Covid-19 crisis spares no one, but it exacerbates inequalities and hits hardest those women whose economic or social situation was already difficult, those who have no access to education or those who are victims of violence. It is essential to mobilise to support the most vulnerable among them. And acting to allow greater access to education is essential to combat these gender inequalities.says Alexandra Palt, Managing Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at GL'Oréal Group and Executive Director of the L'Oréal Foundation.
Speaking on this issue, Vanessa Perrette, Campaign Director Education For Women NowThe European Commission's report, "Investing in education is the first step towards reducing inequality", shows that investing in education is the first step towards reducing inequality. "The fight against gender inequality begins at the very gates of school and education. Women alone account for 63 % of the 750 million illiterate adults in the world, she said.
Before the crisis, 132 million girls were out of school, but today, according to theUNESCOThe crisis threatens to exclude 11 million more, thus depriving them of their right to education. Aide et Action notes that the global pandemic has not only been a health emergency, but also the greatest educational emergency of our time
As the crisis continues, girls and women are likely to be disproportionately affected. The support of the L'Oréal Women's Fund will enable Aide et Action to take action from 2021 onwards by supporting girls and women from early childhood to adulthood, developing vocational training and entrepreneurship for women in Laos, tackling gender discrimination still entrenched in the rural school system in Senegal, supporting teenage girls and young mothers in Madagascar, and providing education and psychosocial support to vulnerable and marginalized girls in India.
Education For Women Now calls on philanthropists, foundations, corporations, change agents and people committed to access to education to join our movement and eradicate discrimination against women as we urgently respond to the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis.
