Over 40 Unilever Bangladesh employees conducted engaging workshops with 1,000 school children in Teach For Bangladesh (TFB) classrooms to promote values of self-esteem and body confidence, reads a press release.
Teach For Bangladesh, a non-profit organisation with the mission of providing quality education for every child in Bangladesh, was the implementing partner for this event.
Dove, a personal care brand of Unilever, runs the self-esteem project which promotes that beauty should be a source of confidence, not anxiety, and aims to build the next generation with confidence so that they can unlock their full potential.
For Dove Day, Unilever Bangladesh employees had to go through a training session facilitated by TFB in-house program specialists to conduct the workshops in schools.
The training session was focused on the ‘Confident Me’ module jointly created and contextualised by Unilever and TFB in 2021.
In the workshops conducted across the two regions, students were informed about the societal pressure on physical appearance and the impact it can have on self-esteem.
They also discussed the impact of social media on the perception of beauty, which often makes people look artificially beautiful.
Through dialogues and insight sharing, students understood that focusing on their own talent and uniqueness rather than comparing themselves with others would help to build their confidence and self-esteem.
The students did several activities and role plays to discuss and internalise what real beauty is about to help improve their self-esteem.
At the end of the session, all the participants pledged to be kind to others and to be a positive change agents for their society.
Marketing Director of Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care at Unilever Bangladesh Afzal Hassan Khan said: “Eight out of ten girls are so concerned with the way they look that they opt out of important activities. On Dove Day, along with our team members, we want to ensure that young people grow up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look. That is why we are actively working to help them raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential.”
Acting CEO of Teach For Bangladesh Ijma Rahman said: “At TFB, we believe that every child is worthy of love, dignity and belonging. Through this collaboration with Unilever for Dove Day, we are confident that our students will understand that beauty standard are a social construct and that they are loved and beautiful just the way they are. TFB aims to support children in unlocking their full potential. With this shared goal between the two organisations, we are excited to have implemented this event.”
For nearly 60 years, Dove has encouraged women to see beauty as a source of confidence and not anxiety.
The Dove Self-Esteem Project, which globally began in 2004, is an extension of that. To build a confident next generation, Dove has set a target of training 5 million children on self-esteem and body confidence in Bangladesh by 2030.
