SO2 – A WLI Celebration
“…Ladies and gentlemen, we are executing an event planned by Marcia…”
— WLI Chair – PR Fundraising & Events Committee Kim Lee
It was a bittersweet moment last Sunday, when the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) team forged ahead with its 20th Anniversary & International Women’s Day Forum & Awards, despite losing WLI Chair – PR Fundraising & Events Committee Marcia Erskine days earlier. But the consensus? “Marcia would have wanted this,” and so the team delivered one of their best events yet.
Truth be told, it doesn’t take much to lend support on International Women’s Day, marked annually on March 8. Getting involved in the #InspireInclusion photo challenge for social media, wearing purple, or donating to a women’s charity doesn’t take much effort, but supporting women year round requires a sisterhood of movers and shakers like those of the WLI.
Founded in 2004 by former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Sue Cobb, and currently chaired by Grace Burnett, the WLI, which boasts a 50+ membership, is far from ladies who lunch, but rather, highly-accomplished members of society who roll up their sleeves and use their philanthropic efforts to address education, violence and health issues in a meaningful way.
For its 20th anniversary, the group celebrated with a forum and awards ceremony recognising the accomplishments of its founder Susan Cobb, and five distinguished female media practitioners: Host of The Susan Show Susan Simes; SimSpeak Communication Services Ltd principal and host of SIM Soul Sessions Simone Clarke-Cooper; Host of Beyond The Headlines and All Angles Dionne Jackson Miller; broadcast journalist and host of Inspire Jamaica Kerlyn Brown; and Jamaica Observer Senior Associate Editor, Lifestyle & Social Content Novia McDonald-Whyte.
WLI panellists (from left) Chair, Advocacy Committee Nadine Heywood; Chair, Education Committe Sharon Lake; and Chair Mentorship Committe Eva Lewis highlighted some of the organisation’s latest projects and initiatives. (Garfield Robinson)
The celebrations, held on March 10 at the AC Hotel Kingston, saw women — and a few notable men — coming out to toast the honorees.
But the glitz and glam of the women in the room were not lost on the cause, as a panel comprising Sharon Lake, Chair – Education Committee, Eva Lewis, Chair – Mentorship Committee, and Nadine Heywood, Chair – Advocacy Committee brought it home, highlighting the continuous work by the WLI while encouraging attendees to help in any way they can. And while the WLI’s main charity is the Voluntary Organization for the Upliftment of Children (VOUCH), the group has funded training in child sexual abuse prevention for hundreds of educators and employees of state agencies; the Darkness to Light, Stewards of Children programme and the ‘Conversations with Boys’, an initiative launched in 2018, in a bid to help with socialising young boys.
