08 Mar Women leaders join the Mentoring Walk celebrating International Women’s Day in Bangkok to share common challenges facing women in Asia

Women leaders join the Mentoring Walk celebrating International Women’s Day in Bangkok to share common challenges facing women in Asia

March 8, 2014 – Today, 30 women will join together at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center for the Global Mentoring Walk hosted by Wedu in partnership with Vital Voices. The Walk is organized annually as part of a global movement to inspire a rising generation through mentorship. Held on International Women’s Day and sponsored globally by Bank of America, the Mentoring Walk convenes established women leaders and emerging women leaders to walk together in their community. As they walk, they discuss their professional challenges and successes to establish a mentoring relationship. The event in Bangkok is one of over 40 mentoring walks taking place today around the world, which are part of a global movement to highlight the importance of women’s leadership and to accelerate the impact of women leaders through mentoring.

Wedu, a social enterprise providing inspiring mentorship and innovative financing for young women in Asia to complete university, has taken the initiative to represent Thailand for this celebration. The mentoring walk in Bangkok will feature prominent local leaders including Ms. Roberta Clarke, Regional Director of UN Women Asia Pacific and 30 women leaders will come together to participate in this special mentoring relationship. The event will share stories of the journeys travelled by women including one of our current rising stars Phyu Hnin Hlaing as they reached for leadership positions.

Co-founder and CEO of Wedu, Mario Ferro said “Mentorship is a powerful tool to unlock the potential of young women leaders by building their confidence and networks. The experience is also inspiring both to mentors and mentees. Wedu wants to empower more young women to become leaders.”

The Global Mentoring Walk hosted by Wedu in partnership with Vital Voices provides an environment for aspiring women professionals to gain the support and guidance that they need to fulfill their goals, as mentoring is proven to be one of the most important steps to establishing a successful career. It is a particularly effective support system to help overcome the obstacles to career growth that women commonly face in corporate and professional environments, such as experiencing the “glass ceiling” effect and more limited networking options. Equipped with the advice and support of a mentor, young women are better able to navigate the professional challenges they face. Mentoring provides a unique opportunity for rising women professionals to accelerate their career advancement—and for established women leaders to share their successes to help future generations of women leaders grow and develop. In fact, research from Catalyst reveals that 65 percent of women who have had a mentor will go on to become mentors themselves, thus paying forward the investment made in them.

“We are proud to stand with the women leaders in our global network on International Women’s Day. The Global Mentoring Walk is the ideal opportunity to demonstrate the power of women’s leadership and unite women in support of other women,” said Alyse Nelson, president and CEO of Vital Voices. “Thanks to generous support from Bank of America, this year’s Mentoring Walks will provide even more aspiring women professionals with the guidance they need to fulfill their goals and positively affect their communities.”

In addition to Thailand, the 2014 walks will take place in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, St. Lucia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

This is the first year that Bank of America is sponsoring the Global Mentoring Walk, building on its longstanding partnership with Vital Voices.  The partnership began in March 2012 with the launch of the Global Ambassadors Program, an initiative that supports women business leaders around the world through intensive one-on-one mentorship and communications, advocacy, and business training.

For more information on the Global Mentoring Walk, visit www.vitalvoices.org and

For additional information on the Global Ambassadors Program, visit www.vitalvoices.org

Wedu

Wedu is a multi-award winning social enterprise, pioneering the applications of mentorship for leadership development in South East Asia. We focus on women as it yields higher developmental impact that leads to large scale social change. Wedu envisions a world where people from the most underprivileged backgrounds have the tools to change their lives and the society of their home country by being masters of their own development. Our missionis to unlock the leadership potential of young women in developing countries into local leaders by providing inspiring mentorship and innovative financing for them to complete university.

Vital Voices Global Partnership 

Vital Voices Global Partnership is the leading non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, invests in and brings visibility to extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and prosperity in their communities. Its international staff and team of over 1,000 partners, pro bono experts and leaders, including senior government, corporate and NGO executives, have trained and mentored more than 14,000 emerging women leaders from over 144 countries in Asia, Africa, Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East since 1997. These women have in turn trained and mentored more than 500,000 additional women and girls in their communities. Visit www.vitalvoices.org to learn more.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 50 million consumer and small business relationships with approximately 5,100 retail banking offices and approximately 16,300 ATMs and award-winning online banking with 30 million active users and more than 14 million mobile users. Bank of America is among the world’s leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in more than 40 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.