Cannes (France), home to the World’s most famous film festival and a platform of global influence, has just hosted the 5th edition of the Better World Fund. At the podium, Eileen Akbaraly, founder of Made For A Woman, reaffirmed her entrepreneurial and creative commitment to an innovative project which is respectful of nature and profoundly human. She received the Unity Peace Award BWF.
A stone’s throw from Spike Lee’s “summer palace”, the president of the film festival, this was an opportunity for the young Madagascan raffia-palm craft brand to promote its values and ambitions.
Invited to speak at the high-end advocacy session ‘Mastermind’ at the opening of this day presented by the Better World French endowment fund, Eileen Akbaraly challenged the public regarding the modern mission of companies.
“Customers want transparency about the origin of materials, products that have meaning, an identity inseparable from their territory. The act of purchasing is aligned with a certain relationship to the world which values human action and demonstrates natural balance.”
It is a major development for all economic and creative players from the South as well as the North, confirmed by the presence of other panelists such as OECD adviser Louis Maréchal, the president of the René Moawad Foundation, Michel Moawad from Lebanon, geopolitician Mikaa Mered, Ghanaian politician Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, and even international lawyer Stéphane Brabant.
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During the evening, several hundred prestigious guests were able to appreciate the immanent beauty of the unique works of Made For A Woman, produced in the brand’s workshops in Madagascar. Bags, tunics, and hats, made by hand in the tradition of the living heritage of Madagascar and colored without heavy metals or dangerous chemicals, offered testimony to a desire to magnify this inseparable link between nature, women, and men who inherit it and the risky, daring part called intelligence in action. Traceability was illustrated by the film “The Raphia Journey” by Geoffrey Gaspard, produced by Eileen Akbaraly, which was presented to guests on the Croisette.
At the end of the event, Eileen Akbaraly received the Unity Peace Award [Best Commitment] from the collective Union-Life International.
Created by Manuel Collas de La Roche as a forum conducive to advocacy for peace, solidarity, and humanism, the Better World Fund held its 5th edition within the prestigious framework of the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Over the years, it has honored personalities of international rank including Jean-Michel Cousteau, Mary J. Blige, Denis Mukwege, Forest Whitaker, and HRH Prince Albert.
