Leading up to its’ seventh anniversary in September, Women on Wings celebrates its success stories. Stories with business partners that share Women on Wings´belief: rural women are the backbone of their communities who can actually break the cycle of poverty for their families. In almost seven year of its existence, Women on Wings worked with 22 of such business partners.
Fabric Plus: impacting the lives of 25,000 rural families
Ellen Tacoma, co-founder Women on Wings: “One of our business partners is silk expert Fabric Plus in Assam.When we started collaborating in 2009, 214 rural women were employed. Since then, we have worked intensely with the team on issues like customer management, distribution strategy and organization structure. The intense collaboration has paid off; today over 25,000 rural families are benefitting from the successful silk business of Fabric Plus. Employment is found in multi areas: from rearing the silk worms to weaving and embroidering the finest silk garments.”
“Ultimately it’s about a significant growth”
Fabric Plus’ mission is to become India’s largest supplier of silk and in doing so be instrumental for significant socio-economic impact.Dilip Barooah, CEO of Fabric Plus: “Thanks to the Women on Wings workshops, we were able to achieve our ambitious targets. Ultimately it’s about a significant growth, both for our company, Fabric Plus, as well as in the number of jobs for women.” The ambition of Fabric Plus does not stop at 25,000 jobs. It continues to set new targets and Women on Wings will be part of the journey towards those.
Fusing Dutch knowledge with Indian social enterprises
The heart of the work of Women on Wings is to supply business consultancy to Indian social enterprises, generating employment for women in rural India. Ronald van het Hof, MD Women on Wings India: “Over 60 mainly Dutch experts share their knowledge and skills pro bono. Sofar, this has resulted in 125,200 new jobs for rural women which impacts the lives of even so many families. It’s the result of fusing the knowledge of our Dutch experts with our Indian business partners, like Fabric Plus.
