Donates to Asian University for Women, and Launches Girls' Soccer Project
TOKYO, June 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. today announces plans to empower women and challenge gender inequality in Bangladesh through two new initiatives - a US $1 million donation to the Asian University for Women, and a project to support girls' soccer. Through the initiatives, Fast Retailing aims to empower the next generation of Bangladeshi women, to help them to fully realize their talents and play an active role in society.
For the Asian University for Women, Fast Retailing is establishing a donor program to provide US $1 million in financial support over five-years to the institute, allowing motivated women the opportunity to develop and play an active role in society. Located in Chittagong, Bangladesh, the Asian University for Women is Asia's only international school dedicated to cultivating successive generations of female leaders. Many of the students are the first female in their family to attend university, and approximately 60% are on full scholarships.
For the girls' soccer project, Fast Retailing is partnering with the NGO Plan Japan to provide training in soccer, leadership, and gender equality and women's rights and health, as well as to support the organization of soccer tournaments across Bangladesh. Participants are also provided with UNIQLO clothing for training. Through this, Fast Retailing aims to help Bangladeshi girls gain the confidence to assert themselves. As many as 1,200 girls between the ages of 10 and 15 are eligible to participate, representing 64 teams of 18 players each. The project is planned across all seven of Bangladesh's administrative divisions (Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Chittagong), for a three year period. The girls' soccer project falls under Fast Retailings' Clothes for Smiles (http://clothesforsmiles.uniqlo.com/), with world's top-ranked men's professional tennis player and UNIQLO Global Brand Ambassador Novak Djokovic.
About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and UNIQLO. With global sales of approximately 928 billion yen for the 2012 fiscal year ending August 31, 2012, Fast Retailing is currently the world's fourth largest apparel retail company, and UNIQLO is Japan's leading specialty retailer.
UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand.Today the company has a total of more than 1,200 stores in 13 markets worldwide including Japan, mainland China, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and U.S. UNIQLO operates an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel. The company believes that truly great clothes should be supremely comfortable, feature universal designs, are of high quality and offer a superb fit to everyone who wears them.
With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com
For media queries, please contact: Fast Retailing, Corporate PR Department Aldo Liguori/Oliver Ormrod, Tokyo, Japan, Tel. +81 (0)3 6885 0960
