WBC Announces Bags For Life India Project

The project aims to develop the stitching skills of local people, helping them to make handicrafts and other jute-based products and providing them with employment opportunities that may not otherwise be available to them.

All profits generated by the sale of products made through the WBC India project will be reinvested into developing the community and employment opportunities for those most marginalised in the local area. WBC has found that widowed women are most in need of practical skills in order to gain full time employment; this in turn will offer enough financial stability for them to send their children to school.

Stage one of the project, which focused on building a centre for training and development, is now complete. The first programme – which offers six widowed women training in stitching and sewing machines – is now in progress, and once it has been completed in August 2015, WBC plans to extend the project into 2016 and beyond with 100 delegates annually.

James Hayward, marketing director at WBC said, “WBC believes that a healthy, fairly paid and well cared for community offers better prospective employees. Women in the community who are trained in numeracy and literacy can go to work and therefore allow their kids to go to school rather than keep them out of school to work and pay for basics such as food.

“Western retailers often purchase a bag for life for less than the cost of a sandwich, so investing 5% of WBC Bags For Life profits in to a project that will benefit community at large is not only about trading ethically, but it makes good business sense.”