To celebrate two decades of empowerment and our 20th Anniversary, The Weekly in partnership with PANDORA, zooms in on 20 fierce, focused and forward-looking women who and inspiring and encouraging others to reach their full potential. Welcome to 2020 Vision!
What started out as a mentorship for Audrey would quickly blossom into something more under the guidance of Laina. While these two women are from completely diverse backgrounds and are separated by a generation, the kindred spirits found they had more in common than differences: They both believe in “creating a world without poverty in unity with women”.
To drive home their passion, they started Angels of Impact, a social movement that supports female-led businesses in the region in a bid to alleviate impoverishment.
“Poverty is the key root behind a lot of other problems. If you don’t solve the issue of poverty, you really can’t solve problems like access to education, environmental degradation and so on. And if you only had one dollar to spend, who would you spend it on?” asks Laina.
“The data shows that you should invest it in women because women put 95 per cent of their income into the family and the community. So, from the point of view of making a difference, women are a good investment.”
The duo look to maximise the social impact of the money they raise through Angels of Impact by working with women entrepreneurs because of the multiplier impact that they have.
“We support them in two key ways. First is market access – we open doors and find customers for them to have their products and services integrated into corporate companies,” explains Audrey.
“The second thing that we do is we also fund these women because while there are many of them doing good work, they are struggling to get access to funding.” As of now, the movement is working with eight women social entrepreneurs across Asia.
[Laina] It’s wonderful being a woman because… after seeing the future and the hope for women over many, many years, I’ve allowed myself to embrace my womanhood.
[Audrey] It’s wonderful being a woman because… of the feminine energy that we possess and the bonds of sisterhood that we cultivate.
Laina and Audrey took part in a photoshoot with us to showcase some of PANDORA’s latest offerings. Scroll through the gallery below to see what they’re wearing:
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