Desk Report: One of the garments manufacturer Apparels Village Limited (AVL) got certified under the Ze Project. AVL is now open to hiring and including transgenders in their workforce, for which they have been presented the certificate by Bandhu Social Welfare says a press release.
The Ze Project is a certification for RMG factories to promote the employment of transgender individuals.This was followed by a wellness session at their factory hosted by Bandhu Social Welfare where the workers have been educated on what is transgenderism and taught about trans rights in Bangladesh. A donation cheque of $1000 was given to Bandhu as a means of getting certified by the Ze Project.
Anne-Laure approached Bandhu, a well-known NGO that works with the hijra and transgender community and formed ZEproject. The core work of ZEproject is to provide compliance certifications for companies who reach a certain quota of hiring. The certification is awarded on a star basis with 5 stars being the highest.
So far, they have four members- Apparel Village Limited has 1, Denim Expert and Crosswear group have 3 stars and Fashion Theory has 4. The members under ZEproject pay a membership fee of $1,000 (Tk 86,000) to Bandhu in exchange for their services and help. Bangladeshi government recently introduced a bill implementing a tax repave of 5% upon hiring 100 transgenders.
