Why AAVRANI Gives Back to the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project

AAVRANI’s mission is rooted in confidence and Owning Your Glow. Rooshy Roy, AAVRANI Founder and CEO says it best—Owning Your Glow looks like being “confident in who we are and reaching our own personal, fullest potential of beauty without adhering to what other people define as beauty.” The beauty Rooshy elucidates on is “not about the kind of facile interpretations of beauty or surface level vanity around it. It’s about empowering ourselves.”

Empowering ourselves goes hand-in-hand with empowering our community. There is beauty in unlocking the beauty of others, giving them the freedom and opportunity to find their own confidence. At AAVRANI, giving back to the world is one of the fundamental pillars of our brand. To do just that, our founders Rooshy Roy (CEO) and Justin Silver (COO) knew they wanted to work with the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, a non-profit based in India in the early stages of building AAVRANI. Read on to hear more from Rooshy Roy, our Founder and CEO, on why AAVRANI gives back to the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project.

What is the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project?

The Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project is a non-profit organization that works on breaking the generational cycle of poverty via educational intervention for children of impoverished backgrounds, from pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. Rooshy expanded on the generational poverty cycle in India:

“In India, if your grandparents took out a loan that they couldn't pay back in their lifetime, it goes to their kid and then it goes to their kid’s kids. And no matter how hard you work, at some point, you can't get to net zero just by paying off old family debt, and that's why it's a cycle that is really difficult to get out of. So what the organization does is it takes these children that are a part of a lot of these families and gives them an opportunity for a new life. While they still might actually owe that money, they're at least spending their time learning, and being around mentors and other children their age. They have a place to stay, food to eat, and they have a sense of stability that they otherwise would never be able to access at home. It’s not too much to say that it's a transformative experience”-Rooshy Roy, AAVRANI Founder & CEO

The Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, located in Tamil Nadu, India, aims to empower the children of our future generations with holistic approaches to education that creates leaders and change-makers for India’s most marginalized communities. They state that their mission is to elevate its students to “face the future with confidence and dignity.”

We believe wholeheartedly in this project, and our values of empowerment and giving back to our community align with the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project’s grounding philosophies.

How did AAVRANI get involved with the Shanti Bhavan Project?

AAVRANI’s Co-Founder Justin Silver had worked with the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project back in his undergraduate program at NYU and had known the Shanti Bhavan team for several years. One of the first things Rooshy and Justin had agreed upon when building AAVRANI was making philanthropy a component of the brand and giving back in a meaningful way. When Justin brought up the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project as an avenue to achieve this goal, Rooshy was immediately intrigued, seeing the scale of impact they would have, especially on young women in India.

Rooshy elaborated, “Thinking about the mission of AAVRANI more broadly, it's so much about pursuing your own confidence and fostering that. We're doing that through the lens of beauty and skincare right now. But for me, personally, education has been another pillar of that confidence.” Rooshy expressed that her education, especially as a woman, has been a huge reason for her ability to create the AAVRANI brand. That said, Rooshy and Justin have committed to donating a portion of AAVRANI's proceeds in perpetuity to the Shanti Bhavan School.

How can you get involved with the AAVRANI x Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project initiative?

Our products are not just for rejuvenating your skin. They are a token to our community that we hope to uplift. They echo the voices of our community, from past, present, and future, to nourish our glow and inner confidence. You are a part of this same value when you purchase an AAVRANI product as 2% of all proceeds are donated to the Shanti Bhavan School.

As you include our products in your daily ritual, remind yourself that you are part of something much larger. Own your glow and transform the world around you.