Gildan recently signed an 18-month-long partnership aimed at helping women in the Bangladesh community. In collaboration with World Vision Bangladesh — a relief, development, and advocacy organization assisting children, families, and communities living in the contexts of poverty and injustice — the partnership represents an investment of $52K to support the economic empowerment of women in the community, specifically to provide training to women who wish to enhance their ability to manage their personal finances.

In targeting financial improvements among women, the program aims to reduce the prevailing gender gap in Bangladesh, according to a press release from Gildan. This isn’t the first time the apparel manufacturer has worked with World Vision. The company has a decade-long partnership with World Vision Honduras, with investments totaling approximately $600K.

“Our partnership with World Vision Honduras has been immensely successful in supporting childhood education and developing teacher training programs to strengthen the education system within our communities in Honduras,” says Claudia Sandoval, vice president of Corporate Citizenship at Gildan, in the press release. “Drawing confidence from this successful partnership with World Vision, we now hope to make similar developments in our Bangladesh community by enabling women to take more ownership of their finances and heighten their capacity to be independent.”

In addition to financial education, this program also seeks to form a foundation for implementing other such programs in the future that foster female empowerment, such as advancing female health education and women leadership development.