The Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk is organized by Red Dot Foundation and Prerana on 29th March 2024, at the J.W Marriott Sahar in Mumbai.
The Global Mentoring Walks convene established women leaders and emerging women leaders to walk together in their community. As they walk, they discuss their personal and professional challenges and successes to establish a mentoring relationship, in which the established leader guides, advises and supports an emerging leader. Held on the same day in countries across the world, the Global Mentoring Walks unify the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network. The “walk” is symbolic at our event in Mumbai.
The participating NGOs nominate girls to participate, and the Red Dot Foundation team conducts goal setting sessions for all the mentees. In this session, the definition of setting goals, and the difference of short and long time goals, are explored. Furthermore, a visualization exercise is conducted, where the mentees are asked to visualize where they saw themselves 5 years from now.
On the other side, the mentors are senior women leaders from various consulates and organizations in Mumbai. Each mentor is matched with a mentee, keeping in mind qualities and goals that would best suit the requirements of the mentees.
It was the idea of one very successful, very busy woman. The founder and former CEO of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne launched mentoring walks to empower young women professionals in the United States. Due to her overcrowded schedule, Gerry did not always have time to meet with the young women who wanted her advice. Instead, she invited them to join her on her morning walks through Central Park. Soon, she was scheduling young women each day to walk with her. Seeing the power and success of this simple formula, she organized walks in key U.S. cities to highlight the importance of mentoring and to provide access to some of the United States’ smartest, most successful women.
They provide insights, guidance and share their own stories over the course of walking – and many of these relationships transcend the Walk and lasting mentor-mentee partnerships are born. In 2008, Gerry shared her strategy for paying it forward with Vital Voices women leaders and they immediately took the model home to their communities.
What started with one woman leader has grown to a global movement, demonstrating what the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network knows to be true: power expands when shared. With every year, we have seen more and more Walks take place and thousands of women from across the globe gather in their own communities to participate in their Mentoring Walk. In 2019 alone, the women leaders in our Vital Voices network hosted 185 walks in 61 countries; nearly 14,300 women and girls participated.