A Centretown restaurant owner, a Shopify product designer and their international army of supporters are helping eradicate child marriages in developing nations, one turmeric face scrub at a time.
Centretown couple Jamil Bhuya, co-owner of Burgers n’ Fries Forever on Bank Street, and his girlfriend Jaz Fenton, created an online business in which a percentage of their profits are donated to the human rights group Girls Not Brides.
The couple created the company in December, but rebranded and re-launched as YLLO Turmeric Scrub with the added philanthropic element in February.
Now – almost two months later and after attracting more than 7,000 Instagram followers – Bhuya and Fenton say they hope to raise awareness and eventually eradicate child marriages by the turmeric scrub they hand-make and package in their Centretown condo. Turmeric scrubs, traditionally used for beautifying and cleansing preparation for marriage ceremonies in South Asian countries, are used to reduce skin imperfections and conditions such as acne and rosacea, even skin tones, reduce wrinkles and control oily skin.
Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of more than 550 organizations from some 70 countries, is committed to ending child marriages in developing countries by empowering girls, mobilizing families and communities, providing services and establishing and implementing laws and policies. They define child marriages as youth who are married under the age of 18.
Today, about 700 million women were married before their 18th birthday, equating to about 10 per cent of the world’s population, reports GNB. Without preventative measures, by 2030 an estimated 16.5 million girls will marry as children each year.
Bhuya says he recognized the problematic number of child brides in developing countries while discussing the new business with his family who are from Bangladesh, a South Asian country east of India.
“I came to realize that in a lot of these weddings – they’re not even women, they’re girls,” Bhuya says. “It’s a huge problem in that part of the world.”
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Both his mother and grandmother were married between the ages of 15- and 17-years-old in Bangladesh.
Bhuya says that in Bangladesh, one out of every three girls is married underage. GNB reports 15 million girls annually are married off too soon—totaling 28 every minute—and that this endangers their personal development and wellbeing.
“It stops them from getting an education, their roles are dictated to them and they don’t even want to get married the majority of the time, most likely all of the time,” Bhuya says. “In any country that has poverty—any Third World country—this is a vicious part of life.”
“We wanted to shine a light on what we feel is an underreported topic,” Bhuya says. “And it aligned very well with our turmeric scrub because it is used in pre-wedding ceremonies in these regions.”
Fenton and Bhuya donate 10 per cent of their profit from each turmeric scrub that retails for $24.95 USD.
“We do not take donations from individuals or companies,” explains Maryam Mohsin, a communications representative for GNB based in the United Kingdom. “We encourage people to donate to grassroots initiatives…that are being run by (GNB) members.”
Among the projects are initiatives such as supporting survivors of sexual violence in Kenya, helping child brides learn skills in Pakistan and empowering adolescent girls in Indian slums.
“The great part of it is the project flexibility and transparency,” Bhuya says. “We can contribute to different projects and campaigns. It’s a really cool way for us to know exactly where the money is going.”
The couple began their business because they had leftover turmeric after a previous enterprise in which they sold tailored spice blends to treat a variety of ailments.
Fenton says the idea for a turmeric face scrub came from Bhuya whose Bengalis heritage made him familiar with the scrub.
The couple says while conducting research, they discovered many ‘do-it-yourself’ turmeric scrub tutorials. However, no one was retailing the products.
“We jumped on the opportunity to be the first,” Fenton says.
Bhuya says after being featured in Allure magazine—an American women’s beauty magazine headquartered in New York City, with a circulation of over one million—business picked up.
After a tropical vacation, they returned home to find their scrub was completely sold out with backorders waiting to be filled.
“We got home and spent all weekend making and packaging scrubs,” Fenton said. “Honestly though, being overloaded is a great problem to have.”
YLLO Scrub has garnered support from more than 7,000 Instagram users, many of which share selfies of turmeric-covered face expressing their love of the product with YLLO Scrub’s hashtag ‘#GetYellow’.
“We are incredibly lucky with the reaction we’ve received,” Fenton says. “It’s awesome to get so much social proof as such a new business.”