Atlas Corps: Empower Women Globally (#GivingToday)

Hello!

How are you? The Atlas Corps Team is sending you our best wishes!

As a show of our support, it is time to celebrate achievements of amazing Atlas Corps Alumni who are making inspiring impacts against COVID-19. Today, we want to talk with our Alumna Medha (Class 16, Nepal, Host: The Nike Foundation) about her efforts to support women, girls, and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal. Medha founded Visible Impact, a nonprofit organization that aims to create Visible Impact on the lives of women, girls, and youth by unleashing their social and economic leadership. During the current lockdown, Medha and Visible Impact continue to support women and girls by protecting their sexual and reproductive rights and ensuring that they have access to necessary services.

Medha shared her insights on the importance of supporting women during the pandemic:

"Women have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, and especially in a patriarchal society like Nepal, the violence that women and girls are facing is going to have very long term consequences. It is important that there is open access to justice, protection from violence, and sexual and reproductive health services. This once in a century pandemic has given us all lessons to learn. I hope that everyone is able to view the safety of women and girls at their surroundings as their responsibility during this time of COVID-19 and that the world will be better and safer for all girls and women post COVID-19."

Read more about Medha and her team in this recent blog post.

Thanks to Medha, and all of your team, for everything that you do! We wish you the best with this inspiring work!

Also, thank YOU for supporting Medha and our community of 775+ social change leaders from 96 countries!

Be well-

Abby

P.S. Read additional Alumni highlights in our #believeinsuperheroes series.

Greetings...from my home to yours;)

As we come together via email, text, skype, WhatsApp, and other various forms of distance communication, I continue to be inspired by people. I am also loving seeing photos from home offices - creative standing desks, pet colleagues, and flowers. I know that my two sons have enjoyed greeting my Atlas Corps colleagues on conference calls.

Some of the people who inspire me most are the Atlas Corps Fellows who continue to serve knowing that their service will empower them to be better leaders into the future. Also, I send a shout out to our Alumni are in that next leadership level and continue to stay connect with one another. A great example is our Alumna Amira (Sudan | Class 21, Host: International Center for Research on Women). You may remember her from our Empower Women Globally campaign in 2018. She continues to inspire!

Check out our latest blog post: Alumni Making Impact as the Communicable Diseaes Officer for the World Health Organization

After serving as an Atlas Corps Fellow in Washington, DC, Amira began working for the World Health Organization as the Communicable Disease Officer. She credits the Fellowship helping her achieve this professional milestone:

Atlas Corps added that critical lens to the way I see things, through the amazing exposure I got during working with my Host Organization, attending different events that Atlas Corps organized as well as interacting with Fellows from all over the world with incredible talent and background.

Amira also shared insight into her current position:

Since the Fellowship, I have worked with the WHO on a project aiming to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) medicalization in five African countries and drafted the global FGM monitoring and evaluation framework to be adopted by the WHO. I also participated in the development of the Sudan HIV National Strategic Plan and am a member of the HIV global fund application. Additionally, I carry out HIV services with analysis and develop stigma reduction booklets in a partnership with the ministry of social welfare.

Thanks, Amira, for the valuable role you are playing advancing public health on an international level. And thank YOU for supporting Amira and our community of more than 775 Fellows from 96 countries! I encourage you to read more Fellow highlights on our blog. 

All of us at Atlas Corps send our best. We also thank you for your support and for being part of our community!

Be Well-

Abby