Lilian Kerongo, Abena Antwi & Marie Thadal (left to right)
Robbinsville, NJ, September 2, 2020 – ITIAH Angels For Learning, a NJ -based nonprofit organization, has received a total of $4,600 in grant donations from The Burt’s Bees Foundation to support IAFL’s vision to transform the lives of women and children in remote areas of economically depressed countries. Burt’s Bees is a subsidiary of The Clorox Company.
The donations will help expand the work of Burt’s Bees senior scientist Lilian Kerongo and product designer Abena Antwi. Kerongo, a native of Kisii in Western Kenya, facilitated a borehole water project in the village of Kisii to help villagers gain access to clean water. She spearheaded the water project as part of ITIAH Angels For Learning Beauty Project Initiatives. Drilling will begin this month.
“On behalf of the board and committee members of IAFL, I want to express our sincere gratitude for the generous donations from the foundation’s Burt’s Bees Dollars for Doers program,” says Marie Thadal, IAFL’s founder. “This also supports the thrust of our initiatives, which enables cosmetic professionals affiliated with IAFL to travel to impoverished communities in the Caribbean and Africa to teach women how to make and market basic skincare products to help them become sustainably sufficient entrepreneurs.”
The donations result from The Clorox Company Foundation’s partnership with Benevity, a software company dedicated to corporate giving. The Clorox Company Foundation through the Benevity platform matches donations from employee’s dollar-for-dollar. The Burt’s Bees Foundation, in turn, provided additional funding to support the charity of its employees’ choice.
Said Matt Kopac, vice president and treasurer of The Burt’s Bees Foundation, “It’s our pleasure to support this important work which also supports our employees’ personal service and leadership efforts.”
As longtime cosmetic industry colleagues of Thadal, Kerongo and Antwi became involved with ITIAH Angels For Learning last year when they started planning the beauty project trip to Kenya.
According to Kerongo, the borehole water project is a labor of love. “When completed it will serve two schools, a church and thousands of villagers,” she says. “Giving back to my village has been the most rewarding project for me. I am so happy that ITIAH Angels For Learning supported this cause without hesitation. It is making the dream of clean water access to the villagers come true!”