AERA & The Shatter Foundation: Women’s Empowerment and Climate Change with Penny Abeywardena

GOVERNMENT LEADER

Did you know that empowering and educating women is key to reducing climate change? In fact, empowering women and girls in developing countries ranked 2nd amongst 76 solutions for curbing global warming. Today, gender equality is still not at the forefront of public attention as a climate solution. 

This is why this Earth Month we chose to partner with The Shatter Foundation, a non-profit that provides girls in underserved communities access to education, mentorship, capital and networks needed to foster an inclusive economy and equitable entrepreneurship. Throughout the month we will be featuring influential women and advisors/mentors to the Foundation as they share their insight on this important topic with us.

"As an immigrant (undocumented for much of my childhood) and a survivor of domestic violence, I know the impact of projects like the Shatter Foundation. Through resources and support they enable women to realize much needed opportunities. With AERA focused on reducing waste and creating equal impact of good on people and planet, it’s the ideal confluence of values I’ve spent my career focused on.

As a New Yorker and government leader, who helped lead the City’s response to COVID-19 last spring when NYC was the epicenter of the pandemic, I am deeply aware of (and connected to) the communities who were most impacted. They are women, women of color especially, who carried the burden from the highest rates of death and illness to extreme economic anxiety.

COVID-19 also reaffirmed the urgency for climate action; we can’t separate the impact of the pandemic in our communities, the need to innovate and build infrastructure policy for women to thrive in the economy and the incessant abuse of our environment.

The partnership between AERA and Shatter Foundation is an important effort in addressing these deeply ingrained challenges, not only is it full of impact it’s also creative and that’s what we need"

– Penny Abeywardena