NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, DEC 1
To support girls and young women in India, Tata Starbucks announced the Tata Starbucks Empowering Girls and Young Women programme. Under this programme, Tata Starbucks will provide girls and young women with the education, financial assistance, and community support they need to develop their skills and find careers, a release said.
Tata Starbucks will collaborate with non-profit organizations, Educate Girls, to improve girls’ education in rural and underprivileged areas, and VIDYA India, to provide volunteering and educational support to girls and young women who have relocated to urban cities from villages.
In the first year of the programme, Tata Starbucks will support 2,000 girls and young women across India, creating education, skills development, and mentoring opportunities that will empower participants to create a better future for themselves and their communities.
Every Starbucks store across India will sponsor and support the education of a girl in primary school by covering the cost of enrolment, while improving learning outcomes and school retention rates. Besides, the company will also donate a percentage of all transactions in the new all-women stores in India to helping mobilize communities around the importance of girls’ education through the partnership with Educate Girls. The programme aims to increase educational enrolment and retention within rural communities while improving literacy and numeracy skills.
Tata Starbucks partners can also volunteer to support girls aged 4 to 18-years old who have relocated to urban cities from villages. Through the VIDYA India collaboration, partners can help to conduct training for life skills, numeracy, and literacy, and volunteer as teachers’ aides to make online classes more effective and engaging. Partners are also invited to participate in parental education awareness programs, designed to advance understanding and engagement around the importance of their children’s education.
“We are delighted to announce this new initiative that provides girls and young women in India with education and tools to build a better life for themselves and their communities,” said Navin Gurnaney, CEO, Tata Starbucks Private Limited.
“Throughout India, gender disparity remains a significant barrier to education – more than 4 million girls are out of school and we are still 15% away from closing the literacy gender gap between men and women. As a leading employer in India, we have a responsibility to invest in initiatives that advance education and skills development among girls and young women. We also continue to encourage diversity and gender equality in this dynamic region. It drives sustainable growth, elevates innovation through diverse thinking and deepens understanding of communities.”
“Educate Girls is glad to collaborate with TATA Starbucks. It is the first time we are collaborating in this unique model with every Starbucks store supporting a girl’s education. Starbucks’ commitment to creating inclusion, diversity, and equity, and our vision to empower out-of-school girls from India’s most remote and rural geographies to get back to education, is well-aligned. Together we hope to strongly advocate for gender equality, equal right to education and enable our girls to become contributing members of our society,” said Safeena Husain, Founder and Executive Director of Educate Girls.
“VIDYA’s partnership with Starbucks is a momentous step towards scaling up our reach and impact, and moving closer to our vision of an India where every child receives a high-quality holistic education, every youth gets an opportunity to succeed and every woman gains economic independence and social equality. We are excited and deeply honoured to enter into a partnership with Starbucks,” said Rashmi Misra, founder-chairperson of VIDYA.
To volunteer and be a part of the Tata Starbucks Empowering Girls and Young Women initiative, please write to empowergirls@tatastarbucks.com.
