The 2015 GC4W International Women’s Day Awards & Benefit Gala – celebrates the Former President of Malawi, Dr. Joyce Banda and the other 2015 GC4W Global Women Champions.
The Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W) is excited about the upcoming GC4W International Women’s Day Awards & Benefit Gala at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC on Saturday March 7th 2015. The event will celebrate the amazing achievements of women from all over the world and how their personal involvement continues to assure a better global society for women and girls – in 2015 and beyond.
With the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals target date at 2015, private individuals, non-profits, corporations and organizations alike – renew their committement and their roles in ensuring that the goals are achieved, as the Sustainable Development Goals are fully realized.
The purpose of this award ceremony is to recognize and celebrate the noble work of deserving women leaders and corporations – who are committed to the advancements of women and girls – and as an encouragement to continue on their individual mission, we honored them as GC4W “Global Women Champion.”
GC4W is proud to announce that Former President of Malawi – Dr. Joyce Banda (one of the First Female President’s in Africa) is the Keynote Speaker and Distinguish Honoree of the 2015 GC4W International Women’s Day Awards & Benefit Gala.
Dr. Joyce Banda worked arduously to achieve economic and financial success, leading to political involvement, which eventually led her to be the President of Malawi. Being the first female president of Malawi granted her the position and power to ameliorate the disparities faced by many Malawian women.
Her personal adversity made her vividly aware of how “economic empowerment [is] key to social and political empowerment…I empowered myself economically, which lead to social empowerment and then to political empowerment. I wanted to see the [same] story for other women,” shares Dr. Banda.
Even after the end of her presidency, Dr. Banda continues her efforts to emphasize the need for gender equality. She has since created the Joyce Banda Foundation, a successful organization the employs several branches in implementing women empowerment. It facilitates everything from financial independence for women, free secondary education, orphan care centers, to agriculture and village transformations. As Dr. Banda points out “without rights, women will have no chance of earning income, receiving education, ensuring quality maternal healthcare and pursuing leadership positions. We must stand up against traditional beliefs holding us back and ignite a cultural shift in how we approach human rights.” (source)
In addition, GC4W strongly advocates connecting for women empowerment (the theme for this year’s celebration), the International Women’s Day Awards event will also commemorate a copious amount of other individuals and corporations. Some of these amazing honorees include Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Wendy Diamond, Ana C. Rold, Melinda Emerson, Michelle King Robson, Sonia Alleyne, Janell Hazelwood, Lynn S. Cooper, Anastasia Dellaccio to name a few.
These amazing women have all played a vital role in implementing change within their society’s to create more opportunities for young girls and women alike. Melinda Emerson, also known as SmallBizLady, has created her own organization that “provides training materials for small organizations and schools to her Become Your Own Boss business curriculum,” which provides “mentoring and business training for minority and women entrepreneurs through the Reinvention Weekend Program.” (source)
Sonia Alleyne, who was a guest host at last years GC4W Gala. She is currently the Press Secretary and PR Director of NYC Department of Finance and the Former Editorial Director at Black Enterprise and Co-Director of Power Women Summit, “an annual leadership conference for professional women of color,” where she “develops content for the executive training and leadership sessions.” (source)
In 2014, GC4W joined UN Women in their HeForShe campaign, which called for stronger male involvement within the feminist movement. GC4W has also played its part in promoting many other UN projects as well, including the #GivingTuesday project led by and heavily promoted by Anastasia Dellaccio.
Anastasia Dellaccio has also worked with and on several projects aimed at helping raise money and awareness for the progress of women’s rights. She is “a board member for Creative Minds International Public Charter School, a Young Professionals in Foreign Policy Global Leader, a Truman National Security Project Political Partner and National advisory committee member for the Millennial Action Project and the Clinton Foundation 20/30 Millennial Program.” (source)
These amazing women are among the exemplary individuals and organizations being honored at the upcoming GC4W 2015 International Women’s Day Awards & Benefit Gala. You can learn more about the upcoming event here or to attend the 2015 GC4W International Women’s Day Awards & Benefit Gala, please register here.
