SPECIAL EDITION: CORONAVIRUS: Alyse Nelson on the Resilience of Women

some much needed inspiration. Today I'm joined by Elie Nelson. Elice is the co founder of Vital Voices and the current president and CEO of the Vital Voices Global Partnership. Alice, Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me our pleasure. So for our listeners who don't know which I hope is none, what is Vital Voices and

who does the organization work with sor so? We were founded on a very simple idea that no country, no community, no corporation can move ahead if pass the population women, girls are left behind. And what we do today has really evolved with women leaders as we have evolved over the last twenty three years that we've been in existence.

What we do now is we search the world for women who have a daring vision for change, and we invest in her through training, mentoring, and network of her peers, financial support, visibility and credibility so that she can take that vision of hers to scale. And I think what we do is is quite frankly, quite different because we're not going into a community and saying, you know, we we know the answers to the problems in Afghanistan right from the United States. We find the leaders who are

doing it. We find the leaders who are maybe combating human rights bolence against women. We final leaders who are uh, you know, making policy change and running for political office, uh and changing the game. We support leaders for social entrepreneurs, developing businesses to solve climate change and other inequities and communities. We're absolutely supporting women on the stiflines change and today we support eighteen thousand women across the hundred and eighty

two countries. But I think what's so beautiful about the organization is that these women stay connected to us, so it's not a one off investment or opportunity. It is something that is a lifelong investment in these women's leaderships.

Sounds like an incredibly powerful model. And obviously I've been involved with you for for many, many years, and I've seen how many people you've been impacting, and not just as you say, the eighteen thousand women, which is incredible that are part of the network, but then as we always talk about that multiplier effect of all the other people women, men, and children in their communities that they're impacting. So the impact is just incredible, enormous. Yeah, I mean

it's millions, it's millions. So for someone who has been very connected to women all over the world for really your entire career, it's not your entire life. Are women having a unique experience during the coronavirus and why would a global pandemic hit women harder than men? No. I think if we look at anytime the world is in crisis or communities in crisis, women very disproportionate impact of

that and all the difficulties that come. So, for example, with COVID nineteen, if we think about it, women are globally the majority of frontline healthcare workers and nurses around the world. They make up the majority of those who are obviously right now picking up a lot of care, whether it be care for elderly, for people who are sick, uh, for children who are out of school. Uh. So that's

another piece. They are often the first to lose their businesses. UM. So we all know that small businesses are really hurting right now. UM. So that that is just a few things. But you layer on top of that violence against women's like anytime you have a crisis, um, and you think about it, if you're being told right now in this crisis where you know anxiety is already high, that now you have to stay in your home on lockdown with

your abuser. What we saw in some communities in China in the height of COVID at increase in domestic violence. So this is a time where women are really facing uh, disproportionate difficulties in this crisis. But you know, Kim, talking to women around the world that we work with, I can also see that yes, they're disproportionately impacted, but they

also bring extraordinary solutions. And I think was one of the reasons we are the reason we have supported women around the world but He's passed more than condecades, is because they lead differently. You know, they see a problem and they immediately want to step up and help solve it. They see you wrong, they want to write it. They lead with empathy, and you know, I can't help but think that. I mean, I hope that's similar to the financial crisis. We might come out of this thinking, oh wow,

women's leadership. The way they lead with empathy, with passion, with collaboration, with that motivation to to UH to bring positive impact to their communities, that's the kind of leadership we need. So so that's you know, a small bit of the silver lining I see UM or or I hope to see UM. But we've got a long way to go. Obviously, you and I share that vision and passion and recognition that women do lead UM in incredible ways and in our words, they use their power for purpose.

But everything you've described is really, I think the heart of what Widal Voices stands for and what has done for so effectively for twenty three years. It's incredible, UM. But even in this moment um, you know, you have these incredible women leaders around the world that you always support and frankly who I know inspire you and all of us. What are you doing, UM in response to COVID,

because you've recently launched a really I think important initiative. Yeah, so, you know Camp, Honestly, every time I don't know exactly how to move forward, I turned back to our network and we have sort of a core groups of the leaders of the network. It's a bit a hundred and fifty women across many different countries, and I immediately reached out to them and said, I'm thinking of you in this crisis. We've just closed our offices, we're all working at home, and I want to know what's going on

in your communities. I've been thinking about you. How bad is the situation. Are you also under lockdown? What impact is this having on your business, on your on your n g O. And the responses that I got were just tremendous, And the only word that came to mind was rebilious per severance, right, but that in this time of christ say. They were like, yes, this is difficult,

but we're going to push forward. And there were so many disheartening stories about the impact that the crisis was having on their communities, but how they were immediately stepping up to do something about it, how they were changing their models just on a dime, just so nimbly. One of the women leaders who worked with for example, in Philadelphia, leads an incredible organization called four one to Food Rescue. Her name is Leo is Rando, and what she does

is she has a mobile app. She connects UH hotels and restaurants that have perfectly good food that they're going to throw out with a network of ten thousand volunteer drivers. Those volunteer drivers across six cities go and pick up the the perfectly good but food that it's about to be thrown now, and they deliberate to you know, a nonprofit UH that needs you know, our communities that are

food and secure. And she's immediately pivot it obviously because so many restaurants are closing down now, really basing up the number of UH stories that she's going to. She told me, in the last two weeks she's gotten two thousand more volunteer driver ury so are like, I want to do something. What can I do? She's immediately pivoted to actually serving school lunches at bus stops. But I mean they're trying to figure out, Okay, the kids won't go to school, they won't get that hot meal they

need each day. So we're gonna go to the bus stops and we're going to liver these hot meals, and they delivered hundreds of hot meals to kids, so they're really pivoted and now we're actually like preparing meals. We'll be back after this break. At least tell me how many countries you reach, because that's really I think important for people to understand what we are across the hundred

and eighty two countries. And you know, it's it's it's actually been fascinating as I have been talking to so many women leaders across our network tell the the experience is very much the same. And again women hit harder. Um. But you were asking before about Beadship we launched, and you know by the Voices was founded for and because of women leaders. So everything we do is so much in a response to what their needs are as leaders

in their communities. And I think now is that moment where you know, people are stepping up in bigger ways and so we have to step up in bigger ways. So we we quickly developed the Voices of Resilience, very much based off this one word that came into my head as I was reading all these emails coming in from women around the world, and that initiative really has um for core components UH to support women across our network.

The first pieces, we just wanted to share their stories, so we immediately within a couple of days, launched the Voices of Resilience podcast and that's the daily podcast. We've never done daily podcasts. We usually do a podcast that comes out every two weeks. It's been an incredible experience for me because I host the podcasts and we've been interviewing all of these women and hearing these incredible stories. So it has really kept me focused and going and

generating creative ideas. But we're also providing critical direct resources. So we established fund to provide um Urgent financial support. We already had a fund that was providing uh Urgent assistance to women who are victims of extreme forms of

gender based violence. This builds on that to really look at how can we help women, you know, who have become the backbone in their community, you know, and in so many places around the world you don't have health care systems, hospitals and so leading in the communities, whether it be you know Ruba who is based in UH in Lebanon and works with Sarian refugees when they've become

those frontline healthcare workers. Um, they've become the people who are mobilizing and and supporting, and so how can we provide them with support that they need, that they can keep going and that they don't have to get it another thought, They can just step up, um and keep going. And that that's something you know, we are constantly trying to raise money for his funds. You can quickly get get money out the door. Um. The certain areas really

around that virtual connection of women around the world. So what we know and what we immediately heard is that they wanted to be connected to each other. I was talking the other day to a mayor of Nelson. It's both a region and a and a city in New Zealand, and she was saying, you know, my connection to my cohort at BIDO voices other women political leaders around the world is the only thing that's kept me going. And you know, we hear that from so many women's We've thought, Okay,

this is our opportunity for rapid digit will integrated. This is our opportunity to sort of shift a lot of the resources that we would have spent traveling out and bringing people together physically, which is still so valuable and I'm sure we will do it in the future, but pivoting some of those resources towards really building an extraordinary hub where we can bring all those leaders together and quite briskly, Kim. It's something we've wanted to do forever.

We have become a far more digital organization. Uh. And it's been amazing because in some ways I feel more connected to our team and to the women around the world. Well, we are so um happy that you are there, that you are leading Vital Voices, That Vital Voices is there for women in so many countries, um. And it's such a it's such a stabilizing force. Um. And I think

you're right. I think we will see everybody emerging stronger from this um And and maybe, as you know, as I know, you and I both agree that women's leadership is different, and maybe we have a chance to prove why that model is so critical. So I think we know what gives us optimism in this moment, which is, as you said, the resilience of women. But how can our listeners directly support Little Voices? Certainly go to our website by a Voice of dot org. There you can

sign up for the Voices of Resilience podcasting. You can sign up quite frankly, anywhere you get your podcasts, whether it be iTunes or Spotify, you can support our work. I mean we we um obviously, like any organization, take a hit during this time, but I think more important that we want to make sure we will be there for other women leaders around the world through the creation of this fund. And I should just mention the last um component actually of that Voices of Resilience initiative is

mobilizing collective action. And really that came from women leaders that we worked with saying what shall we do as a global network across almost every single country around the world, thousands of women and that's a lot of millions, what can we do together? And so they're starting to come up with a number of sort of hacking solutions on

a global scale. There's some great ideas bubbling about a sort of a collection of products made by women across the network and basically sold to help women entrepreneurs during this time. There's a lot of ideas growing, so stay tuned for that. Well, at least it is so fantastic to talk to you in this moment. I know the leaders of Vital Voices around the world. Connected will be

a very powerful concept. So appreciate everything you're doing and please let us continue to know how to support you and thank you for your your vision and your leadership. Can you're listening to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with support from founding partner p ANDNG.

Listen to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and please support this po cast by telling your friends, subscribing and rating us. For more information on Seneca Women, follow us on social media, visit our website Seneca Women dot com, and check out the Seneca Women app free in the app Store. Have a great day, m