Source chimeforchange.org
Education.
Health.
Justice.
For every girl.
For every woman.
Everywhere.
If you know me, you know that I love me some televised musical entertainment in the form of awards shows, music videos, reality TV and benefit concerts from time to time.
And on Sunday night live from the Twickenham Stadium in London the sold out benefit concert Chime for Change aired on NBC featuring the musical stylings of J.Lo, Ellie Goulding, Beyonce, Florence and the Machine, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and many more. Wish I was there! There were also celeb spokespeople: Selma Hayek, Frida Giannini, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Madonna, Jada Pinkett Smith and others who spoke about specific causes close to their hearts. The concert was televised in 150 countries in 6 continents. Talk about a movement! Heyyo!
Why were they coming together? To raise their (high profile) voices to make a change for every girl and woman all over the world. It’s Chime for Change (I love a good play on words!)
Chime for Change founded by Gucci (yup, you read that right…more on that later), co-founded by Beyonce Knowles, Selma Hayak and Frida Giannini (Gucci designer), is a new global campaign to raise funds and awareness for girls’ and women’s empowerment. The campaign focuses on three key areas: Education, Health and Justice.
Through the crowd-funding organization Catapult, nonprofit organizations post their campaigns, people can then search, find and fund the project that means the most to them. Simple, easy, to the point—I like it.
What I don’t like is the fact is Gucci is the founder of this campaign. They’re using their international brand recognition for the benefit of making change. I get that and I think it’s great. BUT they should probably practice what they preach, amiright? A great first step in this Chime for Change is to change how they objectify women in their print advertisements, to which they have received controversy over in the past. (Exhibit A & Exhibit B) I have to be honest when I say I was super pumped about this televised concert aimed to empower females around the world, but discovering that it was a project of Gucci I pulled back, I was disappointed, which is an understatement. Until…
Jada Pinkett Smith presented the project “Jessica’s Story.” Three years ago Jessica escaped sexual abuse and trafficking, a nightmare that she had lived since she was six years old. She is just one of the hundreds of thousands of children who are sex trafficked in the United States. For Jessica there were not a lot of resourced to turn to as she sought to escape, that’s why today, Jessica is helping other girls break the stigma, empower them and provide them with resources.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ok2k9h8qoU&w=560&h=315]
In situations like Jessica’s, its difficult to come to terms that those injustices and abuse happen here at home. These U.S. causes are the ones I like to support. Sure, my money could go further funding a project in developing countries, but there is still so much, too much, suffering here at home that gets ignored because we are considered “privileged.” Donate? Donate. Check!
In a movement with this momentum change can happen rather quickly but its not just about the $4 million the concert raised as of 10p.m. Sunday evening, it’s about changing cultural norms and societies for our future and our children’s children’s future How? By getting EVERYONE, men and women coming together to make an impact. I couldn’t say it any better than Mr. John Legend:
“Guys need to understand that we don’t lose anything when women are empowered,” said Legend in an interview with Journalist Savannah Guthrie. “It makes everybody better, it makes the world better, it makes all the organizations better, it makes our politics better, it makes our communities better when women have an equal seat at the table. Women comprise half of the world’s population and if we are under investing in women’s education we are selling our whole community and our whole society short.”
PREACH!
If you want more info or ways to impact women and girls through education, justice and health in our world visit chimeforchange.org
What empowerment projects do you particularly love? Share them with me in the comments section!