At the heart of amaiaa lies the deep-rooted belief that radiant inner beauty comes from wellness, kindness and empathy. For us, beauty comes from the purity of the soul, from mindfulness and love, from loving oneself the most and from celebrating other women. It was no coincidence then that we were born on International Women’s Day, in 2018.
“I am humbled by the experience of being able to introduce to the world a brand that was born from strength and to provide a legacy to the resilient women who came before me, and to empower those who will follow,” says Ashu Jain, our Founder and Chief Beauty Officer.
With our roots in India and our expression in the United States of America, we draw our inspiration from all over the world. We use the purest-of-pure treasured ingredients from India, known for their restorative and rejuvenating effects, inside and out. We believe beauty is wellness. Our promise to you, our consumer, is that all our products are 100% vegan and cruelty-free. The incomparable beauty of amaiaa comes from soulful consideration. We believe beauty is kindness. As a brand that stands for equality and celebrates other women, we promise to empower young girls with education as well as women in need with the means of livelihood, to help them lead a life of dignity. We believe beauty is empathy.
According to UNICEF, only 1 in 100 girls enrolled in school in rural India, goes to high school. At amaiaa, we believe that equal opportunity education is a right and not a privilege. As we turn one, this International Women’s Day, we are excited to share our purpose, our Empowered Girl initiative, which we are strengthening with our newest partnership with Mumbai-based Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT). This association is our humble endeavor to bring this right to every young girl possible. With every sale we make, we pledge to enable a young girl, in India, to go to school.
Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT) is a non-profit organization based in Mumbai, India. ACT aims to provide financial support and social services to women and children in need, at the individual, community and national levels. With a population of 1.2 billion people, almost 30% of which lives below poverty line—on an average of $1.25 a day, according to a 2011 census—the needs of the women and children in India are of special concern. ACT’s promise is to ‘ACT to make a difference’ and transform the lives of those less privileged by:
- Empowering less privileged women by imparting life skills, providing vocational training and facilitating earning opportunities.
- Promoting basic and higher education for underprivileged children, especially young girls.
- Supporting other charitable causes, such as the welfare of the aged and homeless, disaster-relief funding and funding for rural schools.
With a vision to deepen their impact through their welfare, development and empowerment programs by taking a holistic approach to developing women and children, ACT aims to help them target and address barriers to their growth, such as social pressures and emotional issues. Their ultimate goal is to enable these women and children to sustain their motivation and self-confidence so they can continue to earn and to learn independently.
With our common mission to empower women and young girls to lead a life of dignity, the association between amaiaa and ACT, through a series of a projects, stays true to amaiaa’s core ethic of sustainability and empathy. This collaboration is the organic outcome of our founder Ashu Jain’s undulating efforts to help give a better quality of life to women and children in India, where she found the realization for amaiaa. We, at amaiaa, will ensure they are taught new skills to help them towards this end. Our first project together will enable the women at ACT to earn a dignified livelihood by contributing to our sustainable packaging and promotional initiatives. Starting March 8th, 2019, International Women’s Day, our customers will receive the exclusive “I AM amaiaa” tote bag gift with every full size amaiaa oil purchase. These bags are handmade in India at the ACT vocational center, by a group of strong women seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Later this month, on March 29th, amaiaa will also announce its education sponsorship for a young Indian girl who is hopeful of a bright future. Our founder will personally attend the event at Animedh to present the amaiaa sponsorship.
Ruksana Abubakar Khatri’s story is testament to our Empowered girl initiative. She is a special part of our first team at ACT, making the tote bags for amaiaa with all her love and optimism. When Ruksana’s husband passed away after a prolonged illness, which had eaten through the family’s savings, she was left with a young son to take care of and little to help her do it. Despite her fashion diploma, Ruksana had spent years living the conventional role of the wife as a homemaker. But now, with her husband gone, she had little to turn to. That is, until she decided to pick up the pieces and started working at ACT. Surrounded by supportive women, often with circumstances more daunting then hers, she challenged herself to learn. Finally putting her prior knowledge of garments and stitching to good use, Ruksana seems to have found a new lease on life. Empowered by her newfound financial freedom, she is also able to save up to educate her child, who aspires to be an engineer someday.
This is just the beginning of our promise as we believe empowered women, empower women. We have a series of projects and initiatives that will continue to work towards helping young girls and women lead a better life. In keeping with our commitment to the environment, amaiaa will commission the manufacturing of cloth pouches as secondary packaging for our future product launches, to the women at ACT. As part of the skill-development project, we will also sponsor candle-making and other such workshops for these ladies.
We will work relentlessly to find more such meaningful associations and reach out to as many young girls and women in need, as we can to help them find their inner amaiaa.
As we believe amaiaa is unique and she is in every woman. amaiaa is me and amaiaa is you.
