The Body Shop Gives Back in Unique Ways with Wall of Hope
The Body Shop is urging each one of you to come together and act on our collective power to care and transform the world into a fairer and more beautiful world. The brand recently unveiled its Christmas Wall of Hope in collaboration with Delhi Street Art, showcased at Select Citywalk in Saket, New Delhi, to raise awareness about the plight of female wastepickers as well as to drive fundraising towards Project NARI.
2020 has been a year of challenges and growth – it has also been a year of gratitude as isolation taught us the value of those make our everyday lives safer, cleaner and better. As the year ends, The Body Shop continues to shine a light on India’s female wastepickers who are rarely acknowledged as frontline warriors in the Covid crisis. India has 1.5 million waste pickers – mostly women – who collect and sort over 6,000 tonnes of plastic every day that would otherwise pollute rivers and oceans. Covid-19 has worsened the situation for these vulnerable communities especially for women. Due to the pandemic, India’s informal yet sizeable plastic recycling economy has collapsed leading to rampant joblessness as well high health risks for wastepickers who often work without adequate protective equipment.
To give back to this community of green crusaders, The Body Shop launched Project NARI (Nutrition | Ability | Retraining | Inclusion) in association with Plastics for Change India Foundation in October, 2020. With the ambition of raising up to INR 5Mn till March 2021, the project benefits female wastepickers in Karnataka with PPE kits, direct financial support, daily meals, nutrition supplements, healthcare awareness, training towards becoming plastic quality engineers as well as access to essential services like banking and Aadhar cards.
To raise awareness about the plight of female wastepickers as well as to drive fundraising towards Project NARI, The Body Shop collaborated with Delhi Street Art, known for their large scale street art, to commission a handpainted mural that visually represents the female waste pickers of Project NARI surrounded by South Indian jasmine flowers. Painted by local artists with vivid brush-strokes in a life-like style, this 10 ft * 24 ft artwork is showcased at Select Citywalk Mall Plaza and serves as a reminder to be grateful for the work done by the wastepicker community in keeping our streets clean and our environment free of plastic pollution, often at great personal risk. The Jasmine flowers in the artwork are an artful nod to the brand’s first floral Christmas Limited Edition range – Winter Jasmine made with Jasmine extracts from India.
The Body Shop’s Christmas collection including new Christmas gifts and the much-awaited line-up of Limited-Edition festive fragrances – New Winter Jasmine, Festive Berry and Warm Vanilla – have also launched just in time for Christmas to meet all year-end, wedding and Christmas gifting needs.100% Vegan, responsibly sourced and packed sustainably in Community Fair Trade Jute, Recycled Paper or reusable tin packaging.
Every purchase with The Body Shop, this Christmas, including the new Christmas collection will help support the safety and security for female wastepickers who are most affected by the crisis of Covid-19. From 1st to 31st Dec, 1.8 pence from every purchase at The Body Shop stores and online on www.thebodyshop.in will go towards Project NARI. Additionally, for every voluntary customer donation of INR 20 or more, The Body Shop will match all donations towards this initiative. In India, The Body shop aims to raise INR 5Mn by March 2021 towards this project. As a global commitment to female empowerment in this pandemic, The Body Shop has committed to donate a minimum of £250,000 towards women’s organizations.
