Pro Bono | EMEA

Pro bono highlight – Supporting the Womanity Foundation

We supported the Womanity Foundation in their selection of candidates for this year’s Womanity Award, which aims to support collaborations between organisations in the Global South so they can work in partnership to adapt innovative programs across different countries. Every two years, Womanity selects new pairs of organisations that will work together for three years with their support. This year, the Award was focusing on programmes that prevent domestic violence and shortlisted three pairs of organisations as the finalists of the selection process. At the end of an inspiring event which showcased all finalists, the winners were announced on 8 December 2021: Themis – Gênero, Justiça e Direitos Humanos from Brazil and Associação Cabo-Verdiana de Luta Contra Violência Baseada no Género from Cape Verde.

The two organisations are partnering to combine their knowledge and experiences to adapt and implement Fla SIM pa Mudjer (“Say Yes to Women”): Women Together Preventing Domestic Violence in Cabo Verde, a programme for prevention of domestic violence, to further assist the affected communities in two islands of the archipelago: Santiago and Fogo. In the first phase of the programme, female community leaders will be trained and educated on topics such as gender-based violence, women’s rights and how their respective legal system operates. In the second phase, a Community Care Model will be set up on each island involving, inter alia, workshops, conversation circles for skills buildings, counselling and supporting women in situations of violence, or campaigns for dissemination of key messages of non-tolerance of violence. The organisations believe that the programme will empower women to become agents of change in their communities – and reduce incidences of domestic violence in Santiago and Fogo by addressing the deconstruction of gender-based inequities.

The following team of volunteers across the Hogan Lovells APAC and EMEA offices conducted legal due diligence and verified the backgrounds of ten pairs of shortlisted candidates for the Womanity Award: Karina Antonio, Moira Boennen, Raymond Dunn, Ken Jeung, Charmaine Kwong, Rosie Shields, Ronald Sunardi, Ruchi Rawat, Fugui Tan, Sylvia Taslim, Khushaal Ved and Danielle Wu. The legal due diligence helped to identify certain issues about some of the organisations and aided the advisory board in their deliberations on who to pick as finalists.

Furthermore, Marie-Aimée de Dampierre, our global Chair, was involved as a judge and advisory board member for the selection of the three pairs of finalists.

Contacts:

Dr. Marion Fischer, Counsel and Responsible Business Senior Advisor EMEA

Stefanie Chan, Responsible Business Advisor APAC & EMEA

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