I have come to strongly believe that opportunities and preparedness collide ever so often to create the thing people call LUCK!
In 2006, I was selected to represent Kenya on the Fortune/ State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership. The experience was exactly what I needed to turn my life around and help many other women and girls in my country.
I am slowly beginning to see why this opportunity came my way. At the time, however, no one could ever have convinced me of all the great things have happened as a result.
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Phyllis on October 30th 2008 in General, HIV/AIDS
A telephone call from the US Embassy in Kenya late one evening in March, 2006 began the most extraordinary - and certainly most unlikely - ‘Cinderella story’ ever recorded on the pages of the life of an emerging Kenyan woman business leader.
Following a very successful Fortune’s Most Powerful Women’s summit in 2005, an idea was conceived by a group of American women leaders to share their skills and experiences with younger businesswomen from emerging economies of the world. Three partners – Fortune, the US State department and Vital Voices – quickly came together to actualize this exciting idea. The talented and inaugural group of 17 women began a phenomenal four week mentorship program in May 2006, in Washington DC, having been selected from hundreds of possible candidates coming from an initial 15 target countries. Continue Reading »
Eva on October 30th 2008 in General
Buenos Aires, October 30, 2008 - More than 200 hundred women including former U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, President of The Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet and President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, gathered recently to develop strategies to move women in Latin America and the Caribbean forward.
“There has been a huge change in the cultural role of women in the region and in my country,” said Bachelet, one of very few women in political leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean. “I am a doctor, a pediatrician and now I am president of my country. When I was growing up, the idea that a woman could be president was very remote. When I was growing up, women in Chile wanted to be a doctor like me, now they want to be president.”
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Andrea Downer on October 30th 2008 in General, Latin America & the Caribbean
We at Vital Voices are excited by a bit of little known, but ground-breaking news. Rwanda has just sworn in the world’s first women-majority parliament, as well as their first female Speaker of Parliament, Rose Mukantabana! The Vital Voices Global Leadership Network pledges its support to these women leaders to ensure that together, we can create lasting change in women’s lives.
The lower house of the Rwandan parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) is now 56.3% female, and leads the world as #1 for the percentage of women in parliament, according to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU). Other African countries to rank among the IPU’s top 20 for percentages of women in parliament are Angola at (#8 with 37.3%), Mozambique (#13 with 34.8%), South Africa (#17 with 33%) and Uganda (#20 with 30.7%). The USA ranks number 69 with 16.8%.
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Celena on October 8th 2008 in General, HIV/AIDS
This morning participants traveled to the Malba, Buenos Aires’ modern museum of art where we enjoyed a tour and admired works from some of the region’s most innovative 20th century artists—including those of Frida Kahlo, a trailblazer for women in her own time.
After a brief tour, participants sat down to listen to the speeches of International Development Bank President, Luis Alberto Moreno and Dina Powell, Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Engagement for Goldman Sachs & Co., who announced their partnership to commission a new study that will make the case for investing in women entrepreneurs throughout the Americas. Continue Reading »
The Summit kicked off with a bang this morning. About 200 leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean poured into our opening plenary session, where they were greeted by Summit Moderator and Former CNN International Anchor, Sonia Ruseler.
Throughout the course of the morning we heard from women leaders, including President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton (pre-recorded), who reinforced the same message: empowering women will uplift nations and change the course of history.
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