05
NEPAL
THE BODY SHOP
TAKES ACTION
IN NEPAL
With close ties to its Nepalese supplier of recycled paper,
Get Paper Industry, The Body Shop mounted
a solidarity drive to meet the most urgent needs
after the catastrophe of spring 2015.
There were scenes of devastation in Kathmandu, following the violent earthquakes
of April 2015. In the town that is home to
recycled paper company Get Paper
­Industry, with which The Body Shop established a Fair Trade partnership over 25 years
ago, nearly 20,000 homes were destroyed
and 7,000 people died.
In London, the brand created by Anita
Roddick, which for 10 years has been part
of the L’Oréal Group, was deeply affected
by the fate of the employees of their cardboard gift-box, paper bag and business
card supplier. “We’ve watched the cooperative grow like a family, from a handful
of female workers at the outset, to 200
today and 600 at peak times,” explains
­
Stéphane de Williencourt, director of operations and research.“Faced with this trauma,
we wanted to show our commitment to
the present and provide guarantees for
the future.”
So The Body Shop took action, from top
management, which opened up a budget
line, to employees and franchise stores,
invited to contribute to a fund. Some of
the €40,000 raised went into the provisional
reconstruction of a school using materials
available on site: sheet metal and bamboo.
Faced with this
trauma, we wanted
to show our commitment
to the present and
provide guarantees
for the future.
The rest was distributed to the workers, in
amounts weighted according the extent
each one had suffered in the disaster, to
help them rebuild their house, or a wall, or
repair the roof...“It’s urgent that the people
have shelter, because the monsoon is
coming,” alerted Stéphane de Williencourt,
who rushed to the scene.
The tents sent out in the first emergency
response were sadly never occupied as
they were immediately blown down by
the wind.
Driving
social progress
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