Empowering Women to Transform Communities:
LOréal Philippines’ Beauty For a Better Life Celebrates
One Year of Changing Lives
Metro Manila, 2018 – Launched last April 2017, LOréals Beauty For a Better Life has since completed one full year of training for three batches of beneficiaries. Placing beauty at the heart of re-building identities and lives, and created to ignite long-term social impact, many of those who benefit from LOréals Beauty For a Better Life are women in vulnerable social or economic situations. Since its launch, 62 beneficiaries from the Philippines has been given an opportunity to go into jobs and even own businesses in the field of hairdressing.
Led by the LOréal Foundation, Beauty For a Better Life is deployed in 27 countries globally and is one of the Foundations key programs to empower women in situations of social and economic instability by training them for careers in the beauty sector. For its first run, LOréal Philippines, along with its partner organization Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), decided to focus on training women within one barangay to allow for growth within the community and co-empowerment among themselves.
The program was first brought to Brgy. Sto. Niño in Marikina as one of the priority areas for unemployment.
“We believe in the power of beauty to change lives, and Beauty For a Better Life expands the definition of beauty by using it a way to provide skills and livelihood opportunities to those most in need. A renewed sense of self-confidence, diginity and motivation are fundamental changes that we see in our graduates and it is our hope and vision that Beauty For a Better Life empowers these women to gain a better quality of life through increased access to livelihood opportunities, and thereby becoming socially and economically empowered to also serve as beacons of hope for their own families and communities, shares Carmel Valencia, LOréal Philippines Corporate Communication Manager.
To date, 62 individuals have completed the program, 22 of which come from the third batch graduating this April 2018. Each batch of beneficiaries underwent daily classroom sessions in the Barangay Hall for three months wherein they were taught different hairdressing skills such as blowdrying, hair coloring, hair cutting, and application of hair treatments under the tutelage of LOréal Philippines trainers. They were also exposed to a one-week internship in LOréals partner salons across Metro Manila to expose them to actual hairdressing jobs and potentially further their career options.
Beauty For a Better Life beneficiaries as they undergo classroom sessions and salon internships.April 3 signals a new chapter for the program as it celebrates all the beneficiaries from Brgy. Sto. Niño including the latest set of graduates and also gives way for the turning over of the program to a new barangay in Marikina. It is truly heartwarming to see the hope that the program has brought about to the lives of the women (and men) of Brgy. Sto. Niño. For the next cycle of Beauty For a Better Life, we are hoping that we will also open opportunities to individuals from Brgy. Dela Peña and continue our advocacy of changing lives through beauty, concludes Ms. Valencia.
The first batch of beneficiaries from Brgy. Dela Peña will begin training under the program on April 4.
About Beauty for a Better Life
From 2009 to 2012, LOréal Philippines mounted the annual Bigay Daan program which taught hairdressing and makeup skills to over 300 unemployed women in Pasig over four years.
In 2017, LOréal Philippines relaunched the program under a new name, Beauty For a Better Life. Led by the LOréal Foundation and implemented in different countries across the globe, Beauty For a Better Life continues to empower and change the lives of women through developing their self-confidence and providing them with an opportunity for a better life. Acknowledging that having a better life may mean different things to different people in different cultures, the Foundation gives its counterparts in different countries the liberty to design the program to be more appropriate and relevant to the local context.
About LOréal Philippines
LOréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 34 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 25.8 billion euros in 2016 and employs 89,300 people worldwide. As the worlds leading beauty company, LOréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce. Research and innovation are at the core of LOréals strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. LOréals sustainability commitment for 2020 Sharing Beauty With All sets out ambitious sustainable development objectives across the Groups value chain.
LOréal Philippines has been present in the country as a wholly owned subsidiary of LOréal since 1994. Based on the unique and diverse beauty needs of every Filipino, LOreal Philippines manages a portfolio of the most technologically advanced brands across several beauty categories and present across all beauty channels, including LOréal Paris, Maybelline New York, Garnier, Nyx Professional Make Up, Kiehls, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Guy Laroche, LOréal Professionnel, Kérastase, and Matrix.
As one of the big beauty players in the country, LOréal Philippines has also made its contributions as a good corporate citizen to the country over its 25 years of presence. It is our priority and commitment to reduce the impact of our activity on the planet and bolster positive socio-economic impact on the lives of people and communities in the Philippines. This has been done through our various philanthropic activities such as Beauty For a Better Life, and Citizen Day.
About L’Oréal
LOréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 34 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 26.02 billion euros in 2017 and employs 82 600 people worldwide. As the worlds leading beauty company, LOréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce. Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 3 885 people, are at the core of LOréals strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. LOréals sustainability commitment for 2020 Sharing Beauty With All sets out ambitious sustainable development objectives across the Groups value chain.
For more information: http://mediaroom.loreal.com/en/.