Touching Women’s Labor with TENCEL™
International Women’s Day on March 8 is a time to support women’s contributions and push for more gender equality.
In honor of IWD, TENCEL™ is empowering women through craft. The fiber maker is joining forces with Multi-Purpose Community Centers (ÇATOM) in Turkey, which aims to increase women’s employment and use of public services, for a project that uses women-made creations to raise money for women and children.
The “Touching women’s labor with TENCEL™” initiative created embellished totes out of TENCEL™ fabric from denim mill Orta Anadolu. Women at the Mardin ÇATOM center hand embellished the bags with a design of a women’s hands holding the leaf from the TENCEL™ logo. The totes are being sold by Turkish retailer Mudo, with the income from sales going to the Mardin ÇATOM center’s GAP Association for Women and Children.
“’Touching women’s labor with TENCEL™’ is one of the projects we launched for this purpose,” said Bengi Ergon Kaya, regional marketing manager of Lenzing Turkey & Africa & CIS Region. “ÇATOM centers have focused on social gender equality and contributed to society with their efforts for long years, so we are also very proud to cooperate with them. We will continue to support the empowerment of women and girls and reduce gender inequality through such collaborations and projects.”
Watch the video below for an inside look at the project.