Sandra Kasonso is a valued member of the Vital Voices network. We were first introduced to Sandra in 2007, when she attended Vital Voices of Africa: A Leadership Summit for Women and Girls, a summit hosted by Vital Voices in Cape Town, South Africa. Sandra most recently participated in a Vital Voices Women’s Artisan Product & Business Development Program training held in Nairobi, Kenya. The following is a blog post written by Sandra about her experience organizing a Global Women’s Mentoring Walk in Zambia.

My name is Sandra Ndona Kasonso. I first heard about Vital Voices from the American Center in Zambia when a staff member, Betty Nalungwe, nominated me to attend the leadership summit in Cape Town in 2007. The article I am writing is about the mentoring walk I organized with five friends in Zambia.

Vital Voices Network member Sandra Kasonso

I can’t remember when I first saw the mentoring walk email from Vital Voices requesting interested people to participate. I took an interest but wasn’t sure I could commit and so I ignored it. Months later I was telling Melysa Sperber, Vital Voices’ Global Grants Manager, about my girls club and how I wanted to help the girls achieve their dreams. I was looking for ideas when Melysa suggested the mentoring walk. I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get involved and requested more information, which Global Programs Assistant Nicole Hauspurg sent. After going through the mentoring walk tool kit and overview I thought it was a great idea and passed the overview to friends for comments and support.

I mainly had to fight my self-doubt. First, I asked myself where would I start? Did I have what it took to lead this? So I hung back.

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On November 21, the 2009 Global Women’s Mentoring Walk took place in six countries across the globe, convening established women leaders and rising professionals in an effort to foster the leadership potential of the next generation of aspiring women leaders. Organized locally by Vital Voices alumnae of the FORTUNE/US State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, the first walk to be held in Egypt was carried out with great success. Participant and organizer Noha Khattab, senior vice president at a regional private equity firm, writes on her experience and the mentoring walk in the post below.

Fellow FORTUNE/US State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership alumnae Ghada Darwish, Nermeen Nosseir and myself are proud to report the success of Egypt’s first mentoring walk. Held under the auspices of the Ministry of Family and Population, and sponsored by ExxonMobil and Al Azhar Part, our walk had 120 participants from many disciplines including business, NGOs, media, advertizing, medicine, and education among others.

Before the walk, we had matched mentors with mentees; some mentors walked with only one mentee, while others walked with as many as three mentees. The event was kicked off when Ghada, Nermeen and I gave an overview of the idea of mentoring, and what the walk will be about. We spoke about how we were introduced to the idea of mentoring through the FORTUNE/State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Program, and how we hope that this walk, which is Egypt’s first, would be the first of many to come. We said that we want to work towards reaching out to more and more women, especially marginalized women.

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In a recent article, FORTUNE Editor-at-Large and leading partner of the FORTUNE/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership Patricia Sellers highlights the involvement of Oxygen Media Founder and former CEO Gerry Laybourne in the 2009 Global Women’s Mentoring Walk in Kampala, Uganda. The Mentoring Walk, coordinated by Vital Voices, is organized by Vital Voices leaders and alumnae of the FORTUNE/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership, and emerged from a tradition initiated by Laybourne. A series of community based events, the Global Women’s Mentoring Walks pair established and emerging women professionals to engage in mentoring partnerships in communities across the globe.

Sellers writes on Laybourne’s influence and on the significance of mentees who are paying it forward, inspiring those in their communities as they have been inspired by leaders like Laybourne. Sellers says of Laybourne after her experience:

“Turns out, [Laybourne] made it home from Uganda in time for Thanksgiving. She decided to give thanks this year, she says, for a world of smart, energetic, game-changing women.”

“Career advice on the move, globally” Patricia Sellers, FORTUNE

Rehmah Kasule, center, addresses the crowd in Kampala, Uganda.

On November 21, Uganda joined the other six countries around the world to participate in the Global Mentoring Walk 2009.

During the FORTUNE/US State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Program in May 2009 one lady at AXA Equitable asked me the three things that if I had that would have made my life better. This was indeed an “A-ha” moment for me… This is a question that had gone through my mind for years. My answer was: “If I had proper guidance, support networks and self belief, my journey would have been simpler and better.” Coming back home, mentoring other women has become my mission - to support and guide women in Uganda by starting Mentoring Clubs which will help girls in school, women in employment and women entrepreneurs to unleash their potential.

The major purpose of the Uganda mentoring walk was rooted in Augusto Lopez-Claros’ quote “It is indeed very likely that there is a strong and positive correlation between Africa’s economic growth and the unleashing of female talent”. My objectives were:

· To raise awareness about Mentoring as a key tool for personal development.

· To bring together women professionals and emerging women professionals in mentoring partnerships in order to create a network of role models.

· To illustrate women’s dedication to building leadership and spotlight the accomplishments of women in Uganda.

· To initiate a series of activities which will identify, guide and support young women “to lead a life of Choice not Chance” so that they make a positive transition into adulthood.

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Vital Voices Global Partnership is thrilled to have been able to help coordinate the 2009 Global Women’s Mentoring Walk on Saturday, November 21, 2009, where women leaders across the globe walked to support the next generation of aspiring women professionals.

The 2009 walks built upon the success of the 2008 Inaugural Mentoring Walks held in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, and Serbia. This year, mentoring walks were held in 6 different countries across the globe including Argentina, Egypt, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia. Vital Voices had a staff presence at the walks in Argentina, Malawi and Uganda.

At the walk in Kampala, Uganda, Vital Voices Global Programs Manager Alyson Wise was accompanied by Geraldine Laybourne, Founder and former CEO of Oxygen Media. Ms. Laybourne’s yearly discussions with participants of the FORTUNE/US State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership largely focus on her own efforts to empower young women professionals through mentoring walks in New York City and across the United States.

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International women leaders of the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network will coordinate the second annual Global Women’s Mentoring Walk on November 21, 2009. The 2009 Global Women’s Mentoring Walk will take place in communities throughout 6 different countries including:  Argentina, Egypt,  Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.

Organized as a series of localized community events, the walks will convene established women leaders and rising women professionals to walk together in their communities and engage in discussions regarding their professional challenges and successes. Each walk event will seek to foster the leadership potential of aspiring women professionals for the benefit of local communities. Together, the coordinated walks in 2009 will reach several hundred women leaders and demonstrate the tremendous power of women’s leadership to promote positive change.

The idea for “mentoring walks” originated with Founder and Former CEO of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne, who developed these events across the United States and inspired alumnae of the FORTUNE/US State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership to do the same in their home communities.

The first mentoring walks were held in November 2008 and coordinated with support from Vital Voices. These walks were met with tremendous success and reached hundreds of women across Africa, Eurasia, the Middle East and Latin America. The 2009 mentoring walks promise to do the same, on an even larger scale.

John Kerry, Senator and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee made strong comments yesterday on women and US government policy.

“…from the Oval Office to the State Department to the Senate, women across the world have more champions in American government than ever before. This wave of women’s advocates arrive in Washington not a moment too soon. Today, the globe is being roiled daily by an unfolding economic crisis. It’s up to all of us to ensure that this economic crisis does not become a global women’s crisis, too.”

Read Senator Kerry’s full statement.

In the afterglow of the mentoring walk, the 25 mentees began a week-long orientation in residency in Ikeja, Lagos. The 7 days’ orientation and leadership development program includes training for mentors and mentees on the basics of mentoring, expectations and requirements of mentors/mentees, and workshops led by some of Nigeria’s most powerful women leaders.

The mentees are on a tight leash for the 7 days as they reside together in their hotel, affectionately called “The Big Sister House.” They leave only on the mentee bus to attend sessions, and can only socialize within the confines of the hotel. Cell phones are turned off during all sessions, and the fine for a cell phone ringing during a workshop is 200 Naira per ring! The standards of excellence required are high, as the programs’ founder, Lucy Kanu, is a driven professional and will accept nothing less from the participants.

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Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the first activity held by the Peruvian network of Vital Voices. Spearheaded by Gladys Zarak, Executive Director of Angeles D1 this was the first step in the creation of a new collaborative space to strengthen women’s leadership in Peru. After returning from the regional summit held in Buenos Aires in October, the participants that joined us from Peru returned home energized and determined to coordinate local efforts. This coincided with the women mentoring women opportunity and they did not hesitate to take it on. They partnered with Calandria an affiliate organization of Vital Voices in Peru and worked around the clock to make it happen. Continue Reading »

The Women Mentor Walk (WMW) was really a great experience. It was held at the Nairobi Safari Walk of Kenya Wildlife Services.  There were about 400 women walking. Women were randomly paired up and we walked and talked and looked at the animals.

I went as a mentor and had three women walk with me. One was in her 20s and worked in the Human Resources department of a bank, another was 37 and is the head of Human Resources for a outdoor advertising display company and a 30-year-old woman is a General Practitioner M.D.

A training for mentors was held earlier in the month that I was clearly not able to attend. We were given hand-outs that we could follow that discussed pillars of leadership development, social development and character. Signs were posted along the route (approximately 1 ½ miles) suggesting these topics, as well. Continue Reading »