Education Above All (EAA) is set to reveal a limited-edition collection of Valentino accessories at the 19th edition of Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE) – a new partnership that will give a large number of children access to quality education.
“This year we are launching a very special collection by the House of Valentino, they are creating three-design jewellery accessories with an Educate A Child (EAC) programme logo, which is one of the programmes that work globally for education,” EAA’s Private Sector Partnerships director Parintaj Ankleshvira told a recent DJWE press conference.
The annual event is scheduled to open to Monday at a 33,000 sq m area at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre and will run until February 25, featuring more than 500 jewellery and watches brands from around the globe.
Qatar Tourism noted that the most prominent jewellers from Qatar and the world have set up large showcases at DJWE, many of which will be introducing new brands, limited edition collections and extraordinary showpieces.
Ankleshvira noted that EAA so far has projects in more than 50 countries across the globe and it helped to get 14.4mn children and youth access to quality education.
“These are children we hope to support for a very long time in the future and this is what these partnerships ‘designing with a purpose’ are meant for where major fashion and design houses create special collections, and parts of the proceeds of the sales are given to our education project.
“So this year we are very happy to launch Valentino and in the past, we did Chopard, Richard Mille, and Hermes, which were our three collections done and in the 2023 exhibition we are showcasing the Valentino partnership,” she said.
According to Ankleshvira, Valentino is creating three special design accessories (two bracelets and a pair of earrings): the classic collection, the V collection, and the V logo collection with a special EAC logo. Other details of the jewellery pieces will be revealed soon.
Citing the success of EAA’s previous partnerships, she said these close collaborations not only helped raise funding for a project but also created “a Venice for those 60mn children who still need support in terms of getting access to quality education and that’s what EAA does”.
“We create all these private sector partnerships to help support that goal. In terms of funding it depends on the campaign (it depends on each partnership, collection and brand). For example, these jewellery campaigns they go from anywhere from let’s say QR200,000 to QR1mn to QR2mn. The Richard Mille partnership raised almost QR8mn, about 2.5mn Euro,” Ankleshvira said.
For the latest edition of the exhibition, EAA is showcasing about 30 pieces but will be launched at the Valentino store.
“If you look at the impact that we are having, from our partnerships model, we’ve been able to, the cost of investment for putting one child into primary education, just one child is $125, which is a full primary education.
“Imagine being able to educate one child for five years at a cost of $125. That’s the kind of impact you can have if you work with as many partnerships,” Ankleshvira added.