Stories of fifty remarkable women from the state of Gujarat, India, come together in the book ’50 Inspiring women – boys & girls should read about’. Two of that fifty women are partners of Women on Wings; Geeta Solanki, founder of Unipads India, and Shailini Sheth Amin, founder of MORALFIBRE. The book was launched by Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Government of India, at an event in Ahmedabad, capital of Gujarat.
Unipads; win-win
A childbirth educator turned social entrepreneur from a village in Gujarat, Geeta Solanki founded Unipads India Pvt Ltd (Unipads) with a mission to empower underprivileged women and girls to manufacture reusable sanitary cloth pads, thus providing them and their families a source of livelihood. Women distribute Unipads’ reusable sanitary pads to other women living in both rural and semi urban areas. It not only makes the product available to women and girls at a reasonable price and convenient manner, but also provides employment to women who work as distributors, so called ‘kalyani’s’. Unipads has distributed its pads amongst more than 800,000 women, both nationally and internationally, thus helping them achieve menstrual hygiene.
MORALFIBRE; green at heart
Shailini Sheth Amin, founder and senior partner at Women on Wings’ partner MORALFIBRE is an architect who turned social entrepreneur. Shailini is on a mission to bring ethics back to clothing and founded MORALFIBRE to contribute towards an environmentally and socio-economically sustainable world by bringing synergy in the activities of producers of ethical fabrics, their organizations, designers, consumers and various members of the ethical fabric value chain. The fabrics are hand spun and hand woven by artisans, mainly women, in remote villages. MORALFIBRE is committed to using each bit of fabric through its ‘Saarthak’ initiative and uses left over fabric to make smaller accessories like toys, bags and jewelry.
The partnerships
The two inspiring social entrepreneurs run their business from Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat. Both Geeta and Shailini have been awarded for their work multiple times. Them featuring in this book is yet another recognition for contributing to creating a better world and improving livelihoods. Since 2020, Women on Wings and Unipads collaborate on their joint mission of co-creating employment opportunities for women in rural India. Women on Wings and MORALFIBRE are partnering since 2015 in a joint effort to improve the livelihoods of women artisans.
Photo | Geeta Solanki in blue dress, front row, second from right and Shailini Sheth Amin in grey dress, second row, third from right
