AERA & The Shatter Foundation: Women’s Empowerment and Climate Change with Sobia A. Shaikh

UNICEF USA NW REGION BOARD MEMBER

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.

"I was fortunate enough to be born to parents in Pakistan who firmly believed in women’s education. My mother was “allowed” to finish high school but never attended college, despite wanting to do so desperately. She made sure that my sisters and I were not subjected to the injustices she had to endure. As a result she made it her life’s mission to support our academic journeys every step of the way.

I believe, it’s imperative that girls be accorded the same opportunities as boys, regardless of race, country, origin or socio-economic circumstances.

The Shatter Foundation’s brilliant mission to provide access to business education for girls in underserved communities, along with additional support in the form of mentorships and additional programs resonates deeply with me.

The Foundation not only creates a network of opportunities for these young women but rightly empowers them with the belief that they are, indeed, our future leaders. Leaders, who can and will become a part of the change and successfully address the most urgent threat to our existence in the form of climate change."

– Sobia A. Shaikh

“Climate change is sometimes misunderstood as being about changes in the weather. In reality, it is about changes in our very way of life.” Paul Polman, former Procter & Gamble president for Western Europe