"it also makes me feel happy to weave beautiful scarves for other people. I hope it makes them warm and safe.” --Thay Rah

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March 8th marks the worldwide celebration of women's achievements and occasion for us to reflect on our hopes and goals for the future, International Women's Day. At Global Goods Partners, we thought this would be a great chance to have our partners around the world send us their accomplishments, dreams, and inspirations. So, check back every day this week for a new story to inspire you about the great strides that these women have made for themselves, their families and their communities and find out how YOU can help them reach their future vision.

On Sunday, December 5th, the co-founders of Global Goods Partners (GGP) attended the 2nd Annual Hidden Heroes Awards Ceremony at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. At this ceremony, Catherine Shimony and Joan Shifrin accepted the award that is presented to those whose work exemplifies The Andrew Goodman Foundation's origins and mission of  promoting human dignity, civil rights and social justice through actions characterized by great personal initiative, selflessness, fearlessness, compassion, imagination, and achievement. In addition to GGP, three other organizations were recognized at the awards ceremony: John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE; Jennifer Papa, Founder, City Green; and Barbara Pasternack, TheatreworksUSA. Learn about The Andrew Goodman Foundation and its Hidden Heroes Awards. Continue to support Global Goods Partners by learning about the impact of your purchase!   Below are pictures from the Awards Ceremony! For more pictures from the event, check out our Facebook page and become a Fan! [caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hidden Heroes 2010 with Former Mayor David Dinkins and David Goodman, President of the Andrew Goodman Foundation"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_658" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="David Goodman interviewing Catherine and Joan, co-founders of Global Goods Partners"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_660" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Audience, including Katie Couric, watching the Global Goods Partners video"][/caption]   [caption id="attachment_661" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sylvia Goodman, Director of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Katic Couric, Catherine Shimony of Global Goods Partners, and David Goodman, President of the Andrew Goodman Foundation"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_662" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hidden Heroes from 2010 and 2009, including Toni Maloney of BPeace"][/caption]

His Excellency Bekhbat Khasbazar, Mongolia’s ambassador to the United States, recently spoke about how Mongolia was meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the key role women play in Mongolian society. There are eight MDG goals: eradicate extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and create a global partnership for development. To these eight, the Ambassador said with a broad smile, Mongolia has added an additional goal of good governance because “we love to impress others.” A recent United Nations review of Mongolia’s MDG progress showed that 66 percent of its commitments are on track. In some areas, Mongolia performs extremely well – which many people may be surprised to learn. For example, Mongolia surpasses its MDG goals in primary education, gender equality and combating major diseases. Soon after signing its MDG pledge, the Ambassador said Mongolia succeeded in hitting its target of getting a high percentage of girls into primary and secondary education. It also managed to boost the number of children covered by essential immunizations, cut infant mortality and under-five mortality rates. Where Mongolia is not advancing as quickly as hoped and where the progress is slow or uneven, the Ambassador said, is in poverty reduction, empowering women and environmental sustainability. Speaking about gender equality, Ambassador Bekhbat said women have always played a strong role in traditional Mongolian society. He said that Mongolia has “clearly made progress” in achieving greater equality for women in education and in the workforce, in reducing mortality rates and improving health care. “In our schools, at all levels, we have more girls than boys. Women now constitute 63 percent of our workforce. And women have been the leading voices of our civil society,” he said. Nonetheless, gender inequality, he said, remains a “fact of life” in Mongolia. More women are employed in lower-paying jobs than men and their access to productive assets such as land and loans “clearly needs to be expanded.” Ambassador Bekhbat said that the number of women in top managerial positions in the economy is “negligible and much is needed to be done” to politically empower women. Citing a key statistic, he said Mongolia’s parliament has just three women lawmakers out of a total of 76. To remedy this situation, the Ambassador said that the government has submitted a draft law on gender equality and a new draft election law that mandates some 30 percent of the seats in the national legislative body must be held by women. Both drafts will be taken up by the end of this year. Ambassador Bekhbat was resolute that that these necessary legal changes would improve the lives of Mongolian women, Mongolian families and Mongolian society as a whole. “We fully realize that without attaining this particular Millennium Development Goal of gender equality, other goals – and especially poverty reduction – will be out of reach,” he said. written by GGP board member Debra Marks  

Though we are small-staffed, most days are a hubbub of activity at Global Goods Partners' NY offices because of the cadre of great volunteers that make all that we do possible. We thought it would be interesting for our readers to hear more from the people who are inspired to donate their time and skills. We met Rob Tsai through Catchafire, a start-up that matches skills-based volunteers with nonprofits that need their services. Here's more from Rob about his project and why he wanted to work with us:

"Hello, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the Global Goods Partners community. I was recently matched as a volunteer with GGP to conduct a market analysis, through the volunteer matching service Catchafire.   I’ve been working with Jennifer Gootman on conducting analyses to answer strategic questions on the business - including the size of the total addressable market, growth rates and market segmentations. My background includes having worked in management consulting, investment banking, strategic planning and software solution sales. I’m really excited by the opportunity to apply some of my business skills in a way that helps create positive social change in this world.  While I appreciate that we are using the same tools and approaches to solving standard business questions such as how to define your customer segments, how to measure and improve loyalty, how to improve brand awareness, how to increase customer engagement and conversions - it’s really refreshing to know that at the end of it all, there are clear and measurable impacts from this business (whether it’s measured in number of kids sent to school, or number of jobs created or number of meals provided). This mission is even more critical today.  While there are certainly several benefits the advancements of world trade and globalization, it’s clear that the economic growth (and now decline) of the last twenty years have left numerous communities and populations behind.  I believe that social enterprises like GGP serve an important need and social purpose.  By bringing handmade goods to the U.S. market and partnering with artisan organizations that pay fair living wages and encourage community development, GGP is offering consumers a new way to vote with their wallet for the ideals that matter to them."

Thanks Rob!