Gucci’s Chime for Change | #LetGirlsDream Campaign at Sundance
The Two Gay Geeks were asked to run the following press release in our coverage of Sundance Film Festival. It came through our good friend Patricia Chica from the folks at Gucci.
Have a look at the press release and ask yourself, if you might want to be involved.
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GUCCI’S CHIME FOR CHANGE ANNOUNCES #LETGIRLSDREAM CAMPAIGN,
CONTINUING TO HARNESS THE POWER OF A NEW GENERATION TO ACCELERATE PROGRESS TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY
In support of Equality Now and Girls Not Brides’ efforts to end child marriage
10 October 2019 – On the occasion of International Day of the Girl, Gucci’s CHIME FOR CHANGE launches a campaign with Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy to #LetGirlsDream in support of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage and Equality Now’s efforts to bring an end to child marriage.
Compelled by this critical global issue, CHIME FOR CHANGE has partnered with two-time Academy and three-time Emmy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on her new animated short film, SITARA, about Pari, a young girl whose dream of being a pilot is crushed when she is forced into child marriage. It is the story of 12 million girls around the world who are married off as child brides every year.
To accompany the film and in coordination with Equality Now and Girls Not Brides, CHIME FOR CHANGE has launched a campaign around the theme “Let Girls Dream.” At LetGirlsDream.org and through the hashtag #LetGirlsDream, visitors are encouraged to share their dreams and to call on the global community to help break down the barriers that keep so many girls and women from pursuing theirs. Alessandro Michele, Marco Bizzarri, Lou Doillon, Elle Fanning, Bethann Hardison, Leymah Gbowee, Angelica Hicks, Katja Iversen, Neelofa, Elise by Olsen, Saoirse Ronan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Alison Wonderland, John Yuyi, and acid attack survivors from Hothur Foundation, girls and women from mothers2mothers, Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, Lower East Side Girls Club, and many others, have already shared their dreams on the platform.
“Child marriage is a practice that needs to be relegated to history,” said Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director of Equality Now. “This practice violates girls’ human rights, increases their vulnerabilities and curbs their potential. Governments must enforce laws against child marriage. And all of us need to unite against this practice. I am glad that CHIME FOR CHANGE has taken up this campaign.”
On the eve of International Day of the Girl, tonight Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE will host the premiere of SITARA, produced with VICE Studios, followed by a conversation with Obaid-Chinoy, Executive Producers Gloria Steinem and Ariel Wengroff, producer Imke Fehrmann, and composer Laura Karpman, moderated by Kimberly Drew. At LetGirlsDream.org educators globally have the opportunity to request a local screening, discussion materials and activities that encourage girls and young people to share their dreams and inspire one another.
“Young girls everywhere still face considerable hurdles in achieving their dreams,” said director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. “SITARA embodies that struggle; it is the story of Pari, a young girl who dreams of becoming a pilot and is robbed of it. It is a story about the burdens of family and the impact of patriarchal culture. For me, SITARA is more than a film, it is a movement that we want to start across the world, that encourages parents to invest in their girls’ dreams, freeing their daughters from the burdens of early marriage.”
With a spread about child marriage and including ways readers can become more engaged in this global issue, the second issue of the CHIME zine also debuts this week. Edited by community organizer and writer Adam Eli, and art directed by Italian visual artist MP5, the issue contains contributions from activists, artists and writers around the world. The zine will be distributed at the Gucci Garden in Florence, the Gucci Wooster Bookstore in New York and select bookstores worldwide, and available in Italian, English, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish where applicable. A digital version can be viewed and downloaded at https://chime.gucci.com/zine/issue-01.
A new Gucci podcast episode—the second to focus on CHIME FOR CHANGE initiatives—is now live, to coincide with International Day of the Girl and the #LetGirlsDream campaign. Featuring youth activists Sage Dolan-Sandrino, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi, and moderated by Editor in Chief of Teen Vogue, Lindsay Peoples Wagner, the episode can be listened to here: https://on.gucci.com/GucciPodcastChime1
To further engage the next generation of voices fighting for equality, CHIME FOR CHANGE is pleased to welcome the following new Advisory Board members: Sarah Chadwick, Activist, March For Our Lives; Tanya Compas, Multi-award winning youth worker and LGBTQ+ activist; and Sage Dolan-Sandrino, youth leader and Creative Director of TEAM.
Sarah, Tanya and Sage join the existing CHIME FOR CHANGE Advisory Board, including: Hafsat Abiola, Founder, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy; Muna Abusulayman, Arab TV Icon, Philanthropist; Sarah Brown, Chair, Global Business Coalition for Education; Lydia Cacho, Journalist and Human Rights Activist; David Carey, Chairman, Hearst Magazines; Minh Dang, Founder, Survivor Alliance; Juliet de Baubigny, Venture Capitalist; Waris Dirie, Desert Flower Foundation; Hugh Evans, CEO, Global Citizen; Latanya Mapp Frett, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women; Leymah Gbowee, Gbowee Peace Foundation, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (2011); Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director, Equality Now; Hung Huang, Writer, Publisher; Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global; Katja Iversen, President and CEO, Women Deliver; Madonna, Artist and Founder, Raising Malawi and Ray of Light Foundation; Alyse Nelson, President and CEO, Vital Voices Global Partnership; Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker; François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO, Kering; Jada Pinkett Smith, Actor, Advocate and Founder, Don’t Sell Bodies; Julia Roberts, Actor, Activist and Philanthropist; Caryl Stern, President and CEO, US Fund for UNICEF; and Cleo Wade, Artist, poet, and author.
CHIME FOR CHANGE was founded by Gucci in 2013 to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for gender equality globally, with a focus on Education, Health and Justice. To date, the campaign has raised $15 million to support projects and advocacy in 89 countries, through the funding of 430 projects with 156 partners. CHIME FOR CHANGE aims to inspire participation in a collective community, bringing people together across borders and generations in the fight for equality.
Child marriage is a violation of human rights. Girls who are married before the age of 18 are at risk of increased domestic violence, early or forced pregnancy, and negative health consequences. They are often denied education and economic opportunity, which traps them in a cycle of poverty. Many countries have raised the legal age of marriage to 18. However, the law is not always enforced and is not enough in communities where child marriage holds strong cultural or economic significance.
Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage is a partnership of more than 1,200 civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential. It has a theory of change which explains how ending child marriage requires long-term sustainable efforts by a variety of actors across sectors. Since 1995, Equality Now has been working to achieve legal and systemic change by calling on governments to enact and uphold laws that prevent child marriage, and to advocate for 18 as the minimum age of marriage, without exception.
