Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

In the days leading up to his passing in January, the late, great food-policy guru and Corporate Knights contributor Wayne Roberts answered a few questions from our managing editor, Adria Vasil. He shared his thoughts on the rise of regenerative agriculture and his hopes for our food future. Here are his gently edited remarks:

Regenerative agriculture springs from a global Indigenous view of agriculture. Its not tied to a European/Western way of framing the issues, as was inevitably the case with organic agriculture. It does not settle for sustainability; rather it aims for something truly regenerative. Dream no small dreams, as Tommy Douglas used to say.

Regenerative agriculture is rooted in leaving the soil as nature intended, and basing food production on crops that can be grown without the violence of plowing, which upturns the earth and undermines the earths metabolism and gut.

The beauty of regenerative agriculture is that it can work on many scales. Its methods are appropriate to various scales of food-growing, from backyard gardens (North America has more land in lawns than in food production), green roofs and community gardens to small, medium and large farms permitting universal access to food and land.

Im delighted that regenerative agriculture is being supported by both small and big food enterprises, which is important in the successful delivery of viable efforts to improve the environment. It avoids the problem of turning the perfect into the enemy of the very good, which has been the bane of social-change movements for a century. I love the open-endedness of regenerative agriculture, its lack of clear, binding and dogmatic definitions, its openness to what good people can do as they try to accomplish whats possible. That, of course, creates a vulnerability to greenwashing. But the answer to greenwashing is not dogmatism, but real action on the ground.

Regenerative agriculture also avoids sterile debates around anti-meat climate change policies. Pasture-raised animals can become the basis for both humane agriculture and a protected climate.

Carbon is not the problem; the problem is that the carbon is in the air, not the soil. We seem to have to turn everything into enemies, but nature is made for us to partner with if we just open our eyes.

On the future of food

I would like to see a food future that identifies three streams of food thinking, each a power in its own right:

1. Bringing food from farm to table in as humane and generous a way as possible.

2. Ensuring that the food that makes it to our table matches our love for delicious food as well as our need for nutritious food, and that this can be accessible to all.

3. And finally, what I hope will be my legacy is what I call people-centred food policy thinking about food in terms of how it promotes personal empowerment, how it overcomes loneliness, how it brings people together and how it makes a celebration of joy a part of everyday life. People-centred food policy needs to become as powerful as farm-to-table and nutrition models of food.

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The beauty of regenerative agriculture and the future of food - Corporate Knights Magazine

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of Museum magazine,a benefit of AAMmembership.

Three zoos and aquariums are designing environmental empathy into their work.

In a time when the biological diversity of our planet is at risk, zoos and aquariums are doing pioneering work to mitigate the loss of nature by addressing an important agent of behavior change: empathy. Their work in building empathy for positive conservation outcomes is rooted in evidence-based, long-term, multidisciplinary collaboration that is action oriented. When a fun visit to a zoo or an aquarium is transformed into one that also builds empathy, bridges of understanding, and emotional connections with the environment, we can appreciate the importance of our individual choices within an interconnected universe.

To mitigate and reverse destructive behavior that contributes to the loss of nature, we need more than an intellectual understanding of the environment. We need an emotional connection that makes us care, be concerned, and act compassionately. This requires a pragmatic perspective shift where, through the lens of empathy, we might realize we are inherently connected to something much greater than ourselvesall of humanity and the environment. This understanding inspires us to calibrate and harmonize our attitudes, behaviors, and actions within this whole and leads to a more humble worldview that recognizes the environments independent value and right to exist. At this critical moment in history, humanitys collective survival depends on our ability to inspire this fundamental perspective shift.

As science- and research-based informal learning platforms, zoos and aquariums bring people closer, both intellectually and emotionally, to the otherour planet and the variety of life that it supports. They can create meaningful encounters with our environment where we also learn about ourselves, notice our biases, and understand our responsibility as integral parts of this interconnected, fragile whole. Zoos and aquariums can offer experiences of awe and wonder, experiential learning, storytelling, and contemplation that are known to foster empathy. And they can inspire action by intentionally incorporating empathy into their institutional cultures while modeling behavior in their practices, policies, and leadership.

Following are three examples of zoos and aquariums that are intentionally building empathy to inspire environmental and wildlife conservationand are simultaneously being shaped by the very tools that they are innovating to become more empathetic institutions themselves.Elif M. Gokcigdem

By Jim Wharton

According to data from the United Nations, more than half the worlds population lives in cities. In North America, its more like 80 percent. We are more urban, more digital . . . and in many ways, less connected to nature than ever before. We dont often know where our food comes from or where our waste goes.

As people become more disconnected from the natural world, animals and habitats become unfamiliar, even frightening. If terrestrial ecosystems are unfamiliar, marine and aquatic environs are downright alienless accessible, harder to explore, difficult to understand. Fostering empathy in zoo and aquarium settings can mitigate, if not reverse, this disconnection.

Research on the best practices for developing empathy encourages authentic animal experiences that allow people to observe an animals agency and share their experience of the world through rich, sensory inputs. If you can see what an animal sees, smell what an animal smells, and feel what an animal feels, its easier to imagine a shared perspective.

All mammals share similar emotions (though we may experience them differently), but if we restrict our idea of empathy to merely emotions, we also limit our opportunity to explore our connections with the vast majority of life on Earth. A sea star may not have emotions, but it does have a perspective of the world. It collects sensory input and reacts to stimuli in consistent ways. We can understand that responding to a shadow above by holding on tight is an appropriate response to what might be a predator, even if a sea star doesnt have the neural hardware to experience fear. Some might consider this anthropomorphism (applying human characteristics to non-human objects), but what were really doing is learning by connecting the perspective and experience of the sea star to an experience with which we are more familiar (our own).

Learning how our experience of the world overlaps with an animals is productive and beneficial, but it requires an investment. We must be open to learning about the animal and its life so that when we reach out to empathize, we accurately acknowledge a shared experience rather than merely replacing an animals experience with our own. The latter is a kind of anthropocentrism that is much more dangerous than anthropomorphism because it centers the human experience as the most universal and important at the expense of other living things.

Perspective-taking also requires us to be open to seeing the shared characteristics and experiences humans may hold with non-human animals. The notion of human exceptionalism (the belief that humans are categorically or essentially different from all otheranimals) may suggestthat being like an animal makes us somehow less than human andcan prevent us from exploring ourconnections.

At the Seattle Aquarium we use knowledge-building and anthropomorphic metaphors to help people see their connections to barnacles, sea cucumbers, octopuses, anemones, urchins, and more. Using names and personal pronouns (he, she, they) helps visitors see animals as subjective others rather than natural objects. Sharing information in narratives, rather than just presenting facts, facilitates perspective-taking. By learning to connect and empathize with animals, we bring them into our circle of concern. By appreciating the expansive biodiversity of the ocean and beyond, we can also begin to appreciate our place as a mere thread in the great tapestry of life.

By Michele Miller Houck and Kristin Dean

Established in 1981, the Carolina Raptor Center is an avian zoological facility and environmental education center permitted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the display and rehabilitation of birds of prey. Our mission is to ignite imaginations and engage people with the natural world so they will act on behalf of the environment.

We became interested in the concept of wonder when we adopted a new educational platform called Birds Inspire in preparation for the development of a new campus. In 2016, we partnered with researcher Mary Beth Ausman to embark on The Wonder Project, a yearlong examination of the visitor experience to help us understand the elements of wonder. As we observed visitors interacting with our people, birds, and exhibits, we realized that we relied heavily on cognitive wonder (the how of the natural world) instead of emotional wonder (the wow). To get in touch with our wow factor, we needed to figure out defining moments that already existed in our facility so that we could create more of them.

We developed a five-question activity that asked visitors to choose their responses to the following questions: What did you see that you will remember? What did that make you think about? How did that make you feel? Who inspired you today? And, most importantly, what are you going to do about it? Responses were organized in a Likert scale in which 1 was the least desirable response and 5 the most desirable. Scores from the first summer ranged from 2.12.7 for each question. After revisions in programming, interpretation, and nose-to-beak experiences for the second summer, raw scores rose 0.30.7 points.

This project showed us that the key to wonder is creating extraordinary experiences for humans, because human-centric design has the power to create meaningful connections with the animals. Using words that people understand (family, baby, food, love) sparks curiosity about birds (and the natural world) and inspires people to care about their protection.

This research prompted us to create Tell Your Raptor Story, a new exhibition currently being prototyped at off-site events and via curated on-site experiences, that is scheduled to be installed at our new Raptor Trail at Quest facility in 2025. The experience begins with visitors identifying their raptor avatar and taking on the mantle of that bird throughout the facility. A seven-question quiz asks visitors their own preferences on food, habitat, and social situations and then matches them with one of six bird groups. Participants get a sticker that identifies them as part of that group: I am an owl.

As they move through the facility, they encounter birds (and humans) of their type, sparking conversations around the accuracy of the quiz, their new bird persona, or the associated superpowers. Close encounters with the animals enhance empathy by creating a defining moment, a memory, which draws the visitor closer, creating a palpable bond with the natural world.

The new identity that the raptor avatar provides breaks down social barriers and offers the visitor membership in a new group that crosses cultural, political, and economic barriers and builds new understanding. Empathy for their bird grows as they make new connections throughout the experience. Prototypes for this experience have used bird costumes at a selfie station to connect people to their bird. The focus then shifts from the individualI am an owlto the group: We are part of the parliament of owls. Curiosity about the bird, the birds habitat, or even where the bird shows up in a visitors cultural tradition appears to activate the desire to help protect the bird and its habitat.

Future plans for the avatars include affinity groups, special events, and store merchandisingall to provide more connection points after the initial experience. The Tell Your Raptor Story exhibition space will include hands-on stations to test your raptor superpower and write your raptor story, and a storytelling circle will feature storytellers from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Each element is designed to touch the heart, teach the mind, and create wonder so that the human visitors will take action on behalf of the birds.

By Laurie Stuart

Recognizing the collaborative nature of understanding and fostering empathy for animals, the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington, invited 19 zoos and aquariums from the region to its first Creating Change Symposium: How Empathy Can Advance Your Mission in February 2019. The goal of the 2019 symposium was to generate commitment among participating organizations to develop and implement empathy-based programming by providing summaries of current research, foundational tools, and opportunities to collaborate across institutions.

From this event, the Advancing Conservation through Empathy (ACE) for Wildlife Network was launched as a vehicle for organizations to support one another in designing and implementing empathy-based programming in diverse contexts. Partners in the ACE for Wildlife Network are working together to advance effective practices in using empathy-driven experiences to not only connect visitors to the animals they engage with at our facilities, but also to catalyze pro-environmental behaviors for the benefit of wildlife and habitats that our visitors may never encounter directly.

Research indicates that evoking empathetic responses toward specific animals or plants can increase a persons willingness to take actions that protect the environment. However, we dont yet understand how to align someones empathy-driven connection to Taj, a rhino at the zoo that visitors can meet up close, with the pro-conservation behaviors they could take immediately or later in life on behalf of wild rhino populations thousands of miles away.

Currently, the team at Woodland Park Zoo is working on a causal chain model that describes three key pathways by which empathy-based programming on-site might influence a social movement for conservation, meeting our mission to make conservation a priority in everyones lives. These pathways foster informed connections with animals, reinforce social-emotional development such as self-and social awareness, and strengthen self-efficacy so that individuals are empowered to take meaningful action in response to their empathetic connections. To incorporate these pathways into zoo programming, such as in our Creature Feature presentations with ambassador animals, the Woodland Park Zoo has published an Empathy Bridge tool that outlines nonlinear strategies for utilizing language and activities that increase visitors knowledge, emotional awareness, and sense of self-empowerment that leads to participation (see Resources at left for a link to more information on this tool).

Effective conservation requires complex conversations and pro-environmental actions that no single person or organization can achieve on their own. Therefore, the most effective empathy-based programming must also incorporate the human contexts of conservation issues by fostering pro-social empathy for other communities of people. For example, keeper talks that focus on tigers at Woodland Park Zoo not only encourage empathetic perspective shifts toward our resident tigers and tigers in the wild, but also connect our visitors to the human communities that coexist with and steward indigenous tiger populations in places like Malaysia.

Eventually, we hope that by bridging empathetic connection-making, people will feel inspired to take community-level actions made in mutual consideration of human and non-human animals within any habitat. While the zoo highlights successful conservation stories and shares resources on solutions, such as supporting only sustainable palm oil production, we believe that communities are in the best position to define and implement actions that meet specific conservation needs. Rather than prescribing specific activities, we hope that fostering empathy for wildlife and humans, as well as empowering individuals and communities to participate in conservation activities, will result in the most innovative and self-sustaining behaviors.

To this end, both Woodland Park Zoo and our partners in the ACE for Wildlife Network are currently asking meaningful questions, such as what empathetic connection looks like in different cultural contexts, how empathy for animals is experienced within subsistence-based communities, and whether it is possible to foster empathy for landscapes as living entities. The network is committed to including organizations with diverse audiences, missions, and representative voices so that we can strengthen ongoing conversations about best practices in fostering empathy for wildlife conservation.

Pull quote

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell, and we feel like stopping to speak to the plants and animals as friendly fellow mountaineers.

Empathy-Building Through Museums initiativeelifgokcigdem.com

Seattle Aquariums empathy workseattleaquarium.org/fostering-empathy-wildlife

Carolina Raptor Centers new YouTube series, Avian Adventuresyoutube.com/c/CarolinaRaptorCenter

ACE for Wildlife Networkaceforwildlife.org

Woodland Park Zoos empathy journeyzoo.org/empathy

Woodland Park Zoos Empathy Bridgeaam-us.org/2021/03/19/an-empathy-bridge-helps-the-woodland-park-zoo-drive-social-change/

Elif M. Gokcigdem, Ph.D., is the editor of Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience.Jim Wharton, Ph.D., is director of conservation engagement and learning at the Seattle Aquarium in Washington. Michele Miller Houck is chief wonder maker and Kristin Dean, CPBT-KA, is director of birds at the Carolina Raptor Center. Laurie Stuart, Ed.D., is director of impact at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.

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The Key to Conservation American Alliance of Museums - aam-us.org

Over the past 12 months, we have come up against two public health crises. The first, a global pandemic. The second, misinformation that has run rampant in Singapore of late, amid the rise of COVID-19 cases and several clusters that have recently come to light.

Think this sounds overdramatic? Just a few weeks ago, a group of 12 doctors in Singapore penned an open letter urging parents with children aged between 11 and 15 to rethink their need for vaccination. They highlighted concerns of children receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech and its potential long term side effects. While 11 out of 12 of these doctors have since retracted the statement and Singapore's expert committee on COVID-19 vaccination have clarified that the vaccine is safe for this age group, the facts, it would appear, have not changed peoples opinions. A sizable number of Singaporeans remain sceptical of the benefits of getting vaccinated, despite the governments push for half of the population to be fully vaccinated by this August.

Fake news or misinformation is not a new trend. For years, the media has been hounding Big Tech to take more responsibility for staunching the spread of misinformation on social platforms. Now, we are witnessing the dangerous consequences of it as we deal with the pandemic and an infodemic.

The fight against misinformation has gone up a notch.

How can we defend ourselves?

There is currently no legislation or technology that can stop misinformation before it spreads. But there are ways to combat misinformation, and they require input from all of us. We can no longer sit back and put the onus of sole responsibility on policymakers and industry leaders. Instead, we need to look at the role that we play in disseminating misinformation and how we can arm ourselves with the tools to protect ourselves and others around us.

Just as we take responsibility to maintain our health and wellbeing when it comes to smoking, drug abuse, or obesity, we need to start taking more responsibility for the impact of misinformation on our health and the health of others.

Your role

Let us consider what misinformation or fake news is and what it does. Misinformation is the manipulation of information, of data. It corrupts the facts we use to understand the world around us. It exacerbates social divides and hinders our ability to make the best decisions for our families, businesses, and communities.

We need to start thinking about how we can apply the same skills that help people understand and use data effectively to the issues of misinformation. Individuals should interrogate information in the same way they review data when at work.

The key is working directly with individuals, businesses, and the wider community to help restore the integrity of information. Not everyone needs to become a data scientist; we just need to empower them to understand data in context. This starts by recognising the need to advance data literacy at all levels, from the classroom through early childhood education to the workplace by equipping employees with the right tools and training programs to read, analyse and communicate with data to form accurate, meaningful, and actionable insights. With more practice comes more accurate data reporting and more confidence in identifying misinformation.

Encouragingly, research shows that there is a desire to upskill their data skills to make a positive difference. Closer to home, 4 in 5 Singaporean employees (82 per cent) are willing to invest more time and energy in improving their data skills to make better decisions. We need to leverage this and provide them access to tools that helps them to question and challenge the information they are given, seek the truth behind a story, and support others when misinformation takes hold.

From a community perspective, we are no longer suffering from having a baseline reality. We are operating in competing realities that have created deep rifts in global communities. Chinese medical company, Sinovac, for example, has been subject to several misleading narratives across online media and social channels on the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine shot.

In the open letter example in Singapore mentioned earlier, the group of 12 doctors promoted the Sinovac vaccine for everyone, including children, citing that it could protect against B1617 variants. But in other accounts, scattered reports in the media sent countries across the world into a tailspin. A handful of unsubstantiated reports alleging that the Sinovac vaccine led to the death of a participant in a local trial that disrupted the global vaccine rollout; some paused, some continued as before, and others ceased using it altogether.

Misinformation and disinformation weaken the bonds we build in our communities, so its high time we start making sense of and communicating complex information to help restore these bonds.

Become information empowered

If there is one thing to take away from this, it is that the ability to silence misinformation is about personal empowerment. Businesses and the government need to set an example by giving people, and the communities that they live in, the tools so that they can see misinformation and know how to respond; to challenge such instances in a positive and constructive way.

In the age of an infodemic, our health depends on it.

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From pandemic to infodemic has misinformation become a public health issue in Singapore? - Singapore Business Review

BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to aggravate gender inequality, women are looking for solutions. In light of this, representatives from UN Women, APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), Manat Whine Ministry for Women, China Chamber of International Commerce, China Womens University, Women Political Leaders, and other speakers shared their vision and recommendations on digital transformation for women to get through the crisis, at the APEC Women Connect Online Conference on 30 June.

The virtual conference was co-hosted by ABAC, the private-sector arm of the APEC, and DHgate, the leading B2B cross-border e-commerce marketplace in China.

Julia Torreblanca, chair of ABAC Inclusion Working Group, said in the welcome remarks, "This is a great opportunity for us in the private sector to engage even more actively and fight together with authorities the best way around challenging times."

Mohammad Naciri, regional director of UN Women for Asia and the Pacific, shared a general landscape of the gender inequality in technology adoption, citing India as an example, where only one-third of women have a mobile phone, compared to two-thirds of men. "We believe that digital technologies present enormous opportunities for women, which is why we want to get them into their hands," Naciri said.

Public and Private collaboration empowers women

Our chamber places top priorities on gender equality and skill empowerment, said Sun Xiao, director general of Multilateral Cooperation Department of China Chamber of International Commerce. The chamber has launched many projects in empowering women, including the BRICS Women Innovation Contest to increase the participation of women in the economic process and online capacity-building training for female entrepreneurs in various countries.

Silvana Koch-Mehrin, president and founder of Women Political Leaders (WPL), a worldwide network of thousands of women politicians, emphasized the importance of including women equally in leadership in the public and private sector, adding that "women leaders, in our experience, really need three things, and that's community, connection, and communication,"

"We've got around 50% of women on the public sector boards. So, we use it as an example to prove it is really a good thing," said Rebecca Barnes, policy director of Manat Whine Ministry for Women in New Zealand. The Ministry is the governments principal advisor on achieving better results for women, and wider New Zealand.

Professor Li Ying, dean of the School of International Education at China Women's University, shared a case of a female entrepreneur in Jiande county in Zhejiang province, East China, to illustrate the public and privates strong collaboration in empowering women. The unnamed entrepreneur, who had never received higher education, used to raise chicken at a time when the local government would like to attract people to upskill to more environment-friendly industries. The local government teamed up with an agricultural institute to seek alternatives. They found the land suitable for planting a specific herb, which could be used to cure cardiovascular diseases. Afterward, the government provided funds and encouraged the women to lead villagers to grow this herb, while the institute offered technological support. The new venture turned to be a success finally.

"COVID-19 reminds us we need to accelerate the efforts to narrow the gender gap because women in the disadvantaged group are more fragile. If we do not accelerate this pace on these efforts, the gap will become bigger," Li said.

Technology empowers women in the crisis

Annie Cheng, vice president and head of corporate communications, Greater China at Visa, said the company, as a sponsor for Olympic for 30 years, aims to provide capacity building, including digital adoption. It has trained over 5,000 women, who are business owners in culture, tourism and the sports sector, so they could capture the opportunities in the games.

"We know that when we empower women, individuals benefit, the family benefit, and the community benefit," Cheng said.

"89% of our Chinese female entrepreneurs, graduated from our programs, had already been giving back to their community by donation or mentoring more women in the community before COVID-19, echoed Mandy Ying, an associate of corporate engagement at Goldman Sachs. She is responsible for running the firms philanthropic initiatives in China, particularly the 10,000 Women China.

This proves that the Chinese female entrepreneurs are walking the walk," she commented.

Diane Wang, founder, chairperson and CEO of DHgate, gave the attendees an example of how tech has helped a girl survive the pandemic. Meria, a Texas-based Zumba instructor, quarantined and lost her previous way to make a living, but she has learned to leverage on DHgate's decentralized e-commerce SaaS - MyyShop to earn new money.

She has introduced Zumba leggings and tops from the SaaS platform to her fans in Facebook groups. Once her fans place orders from her channels, MyyShop would dropship to her customers directly. At the same time, she can make money from selling products through her private online community, without the need to understand trade policies, operations, and logistics. "This simple business model has enabled everyone access to international trade equally, and boosted international trade to the next level," said Wang.

While Meria's story is inspiring, Zhixin Chen, vice president of Plug and Play China, shared her observation, which is encouraging. "We still have a long way to go, but in recent years it's happy to see more female founders in the high technology sector."

Chetna Gala Sinha, a social activist and founder of Mann Deshi Bank, said that only 10 % of women had an access to smartphones in her area at the beginning of the pandemic, and now it has increased to 40%. She added that the increased penetration of smartphones had created many opportunities for women to do business.

"Women are ready to go for this digital platform. And once they get that entry, nobody can stop that," she predicted. Sinha, the female activist, has actually witnessed womens growth and advancement for years in her country. She founded the first business school for rural women in India in 2006 and launched a toll-free helpline and the first Chambers of Commerce for women micro-entrepreneurs in 2013.

"I believe, very strongly, on one side, we will help these women to scale their business, provide them loans for their micro enterprises, but on the other side, we have to get the data and make this micro enterprise visible globally, Sinha said.

In China, Ruby Xing, founder of Hello Future Academy, shared her experience in coping with COVID-19. She ran a preschool daycare center in Beijing, but had to shut that down amid the health crisis. The female entrepreneur shifted to offer short videos to help train the parents of their previous clients, kids aged below 6, bringing the number of online tutors to 200 within one year.

"We don't need to be the man, but we still need to figure out a way to be strong. We can learn from mistakes, we can focus on a single wide industry, and we will be successful," she said.

Her Story: Women use tech to make a change

The APEC Women Connect Online Conference also presented a stage for women founders to share their stories.

Kara Nguyen from Vietnam, founder of Mpact, said women use only about 20% of their wardrobe while spending 17 minutes on average every morning to select what to wear. To minimize waste, she founded Mpact, producing clothes not based on trends or forecasts but actual feedback data directly from women.

"It could be very revolutionary to see women can take back the power from media, embrace their uniqueness, and only buy what truly fits them and not just their body, but also the lives by personal values," she said.

Anna Davidson from the UK, founder of Amazon 101 Academy, who knows well how to build brands, create e-commerce stores, and market on e-commerce, has taught over 2,000 students to build successful businesses through online and offline training programs.

It's great to be able to help other women go and find an interest and learn these digital skills to be able to create the ground and sell into the marketplace. And they look after their family at the same time, said Davidson, who has recently been featured in Forbes Magazine in April 2020.

"The more role models we have, the more relatable success feels," chimed in Sabina Nforba from Cameroon, co-founder and president of AfriTech Hub. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to creating innovative young people through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

Watch the full replay of the conference to gain more insights: https://fb.watch/6uBaJ_eDMe/

About DHgateFounded in 2004, DHgate has become the leading B2B cross-border e-commerce marketplace in China. Through our global operations and offices, including in the USA and UK, we reach millions of people with trusted products and services. As of December 31, 2020, DHgate served more than 36 million registered buyers from 223 countries and regions by connecting them to over 2.3 million sellers in China and other countries, with over 25 million live listings on the platform annually. For more information, please visit dhgate.com and follow @DHgate.com.

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Digital Key for Women to Get Through COVID-19 - Business Wire

Allison Mack has issued a full statement where she apologizes to survivors for her role in Keith Ranieres NXIVM cult. The Smallville actor was an early adopter of NXIVM and quickly rose through the ranks to become Ranieres second in command, recruiting young women for the cult via self-actualization seminars, which led them to become slaves to Raniere under the organizations DOS (or Dominos Obsequious Sororium, or Master Over the Slave Women) subgroup. Mack was said to be the leader of DOS, and allegedly oversaw all sorts of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of the cult members, including the branding of Ranieres initials above their genitals. In addition, some women were branded with Macks initials.

Mack was charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy by the U.S. Attorneys office in New York. She was also accused of blackmailing women with naked photos and forcing them to have sex with Raniere. Since her arrest in 2018, Mack has been living under house arrest in the custody of her parents in California. Mack turned over evidence used to indict Raniere, and she later plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges.

In October, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison for multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and racketeering. Mack is set to be sentenced on June 30. Her lawyers are asking for no jail time, citing Macks own victimization by Raniere and her cooperation with the authorities. If convicted, she could face 15 years in prison.

Mack apologizes in her statement, writing It is now of paramount importance to me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life.

She continued, I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path. I am sorry to those of you whom I spoke to in a harsh or hurtful way. At the time, I believed I was helping. I believed in tough love and thought it was the path to personal empowerment. I was so confused. I never want to be someone who is considered mean, but those aspects of my humanity have been revealed in all of this; it has been devastating to reconcile.

NXIVM survivors are worried that Macks cooperation with the feds will absolve her of her allegedly horrific criminal behavior. Ivy Nevares, a former long-time NXIVM member told The Daily Beast, I tend to believe any woman, be it from NXIVM or not, would feel too light a sentence for Allison might somehow normalize or condone women abusing other women.

Another former NXIVM member (who remains anonymous) said that Mack going free would be devastating, adding Indirectly and directly, she made scores of women suffer. It would be really sad to see her get away with it because she saved her own skin.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahman said, Allison Mack was involved in some pretty heinous activity, and the fact that she cooperated does not mitigate anything she did, While she did not do the bare minimum in cooperating with prosecutors, she didnt go out of her way to help either. She was a non-cooperating witness that prosecutors did not end up putting on the stand. She didnt go out of the way to help make sure justice was served.

Allison Mack clearly played a major role in NXIVM and held a lot of power within the cult. On the other hand, she is also a victim of Ranieres machinations. She is also white, wealthy, and famous, factors which will likely reduce her sentence. But Macks victimization doesnt absolve her of the heinous stuff she did within NXVIM. We will have to wait for next week to see if Mack will be held accountable for her horrific behavior.

(via Variety, image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Allison Mack Apologizes for Her Role in NXIVM Cult, but Survivors Aren't Having It - The Mary Sue

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CHICAGO, June 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the U.S. economy begins to recover from the pandemic that has gripped the world for the past year, new data from TransUnions (NYSE: TRU) Personal Lines Insurance Shopping Report shows that property insurance shopping is growing at a robust rate. Conversely, auto insurance has lagged behind 2020 levels during much of the first quarter of 2021.

Property insurance shopping has risen markedly in the last year. The three-week moving average of such shopping rose 24.6% the week of March 28, 2021 compared to the previous year. While the increase was influenced by the fact that March 2020 marked the beginning of many state lockdowns, interestingly, this marked only the second largest such increase in Q1 2021. A 26.0% year-over-year increase occurred during the week of January 3, 2021.

In comparison, auto insurance shopping rose 14.0% the week of March 28, 2021, but that increase was an outlier compared to the rest of the quarter. Auto insurance shopping rates have mostly declined or risen only slightly for much of Q1 2021 compared to the previous year.

Driving the personal lines insurance marketplace are a combination of factors, including robust growth in mortgage originations and flush consumer wallets emerging from the pandemic with expanding needs to cover homes and valuable belongings.

Based on our latest data, we expect that positive year-over-year trends will continue for personal lines insurance shopping as the economy continues to emerge from the pandemic, said Mark McElroy, executive vice president and head of TransUnions insurance business. Price continues to be the main driver of auto insurance shoppers. For property insurance shoppers however, better coverage is the main driver, perhaps owing to the fact they are in a better financial position at this point in the recovery.

Whats driving shopping behaviors?In addition to the customary market analysis found in the quarterly report, TransUnion collected a data snapshot via a high-level consumer survey in March 2021. These survey results allowed TransUnion to better understand the different motivations of auto and property insurance shoppers over the course of the pandemic.

The survey of 2,055 U.S. adults found that approximately 14% of respondents said they switched auto insurance providers since the beginning of the pandemic. Of that group, 42% said they changed because of a cheaper premium and 32% switched for better coverage. About 11% of respondents said they switched property insurance providers since the beginning of the pandemic with 36% changing to secure better coverage and 35% doing so for a lower premium.

An interesting nuance occurred during the pandemic, though, where the dynamics between personal lines insurance shopping and new loans shifted. TransUnion research found that the percent of auto insurance inquiries with a mortgage trade opened within the preceding 90 days increased from 1.5% in 2019 to 2.1% in 2020. The percent of property insurance inquiries with a mortgage trade opened within the preceding 90 days also increased to 2.4% in 2020 compared to 1.6% in 2019. While these percentage changes may seem low, the increase affected tens of thousands of insurance policies across the country.

Low interest rates, a work from home posture, and a race for space fueled the hot housing market and the likely increase in property insurance shopping, said McElroy. The housing market, though, also impacted other forms of insurance. In turn, it is now more important than ever to understand the full consumer credit picture as it has implications for varied insurance policies.

For additional insights into personal lines insurance marketplace, the full report can be accessedhere.

About TransUnions Insurance Shopping Snapshot ReportThe quarterly Insurance Shopping Snapshot Report is based entirely on TransUnions internal studies. The auto insurance shopping trends reported are based on TransUnions report which is derived from TransUnions extensive database of credit data. It includes information on more than 500 million auto insurance shopping transactions from January 2016 to March 2021. The report focuses on the credit population, highlighting TransUnions data. It also explores a subset of the total insurance shopping population. The report excludes data from auto insurance customers in California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, where credit-based insurance scoring information is not used for auto insurance rating or underwriting.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

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Weakness in Auto Insurance Offset by Continued Positive Property Insurance Trends - StreetInsider.com

Youth empowerment is at the center of our governance--Artis Stevens, President, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

"This year's conference marks an exciting milestone for Big Brothers Big Sisters, as we focus on how we can further amplify our purpose which is, and always has been, to ensure all kids reach their full potential," said Artis Stevens, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. "Youth empowerment is at the center of our governance, and through the support of our corporate partners, along with our agencies nationwide, we are committed to expanding our delivery model with our capabilities, scale and commitment."

During the conference, BBBSA will announce over $2.6 million in collective investment from new partners like Merrell, Express, KFC, UPS Foundation and others, that are committed to empowering young people along a journey to positively impact their lives, their communities, and the world. Thought leaders, influential trailblazers and supporters at Fortune 500 companies and organizations such as Starbucks, Comcast NBCUniversal, Nike and SHRM will also come together for meaningful dialogues to discuss key pillars of JEDI, share inspiring stories, and personal experiences.

In partnership with iHeartMedia and Influential, BBBSA will also unveil this year's National Bigs and Littles of the Year. Each year, BBBSA chooses two volunteer mentors ("Bigs") and two youth ("Littles") out of nearly 280,000 Bigs and Littles from across the country. Winners are recognized for their inspiring stories, progress and dedication to the program. This year's winners will be announced at 7:00pm ET on July 1, during the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Bigger Together Celebration being streamed on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BBBSA.

For more information and to learn more about the conference, please visit: https://conference.bbbs.org/.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of AmericaFounded in 1904, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the largest and most experienced youth mentoring organization inthe United States. The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. Big Brothers Big Sisters' evidence-based approach is designed to create positive youth outcomes, including educational success, avoidance of risky behaviors, higher aspirations, greater confidence, and improved relationships. Big Brothers Big Sisters has over 230 local agencies serving more than 5,000 communities across all 50 states. For more information, visit:www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.

SOURCE Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

http://www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org

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Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Reignites Its Commitment To Inspiring Youth Through Mentorship During Its National "Bigger Together"...

Grandmaster ShifujiShaurya Bhardwaj, the inventor of MITTI System and urban SRTs ( Situation Reaction Tactics), is currently working on his dream projects,Mission Prachand BharatandMission Prahar. Acknowledged as The Worlds Best Commandos Mentor and the Worlds Best Commando Trainer, he aims at equipping everyone with self-defence, self-esteem, and patriotism and believes the way to fight terrorism is to establish a union.

In this article

Aim

What is Mission Prachand Bharat all about?

Mission Prachand Bharatwill use the Gurukul way to educate Indians, which intends to instil good moral values, pride and nationalism, along with Sanatan Vedic military training, disaster management skills and extreme survival tactics. A selfless aim of the mission is to mentor the youth in different practical-based skills, prepare them to be accountable, employable, and generate 50 million jobs for them.

Mission Prahar- His second mission aims at women empowerment and employment.

His second project,Mission Prahar, aims at women empowerment by training a minimum of 10 million women and instilling in them the confidence to protect themselves against various threats. Over four million women have undergone training since 1999, especially in rural India. His Mission Prahar Education and Training Trust are working to mentor 40-50% of trainees to be instructors and generate a respectful living.

Details

Immensely respected, he never shares mentoring services for personal gains.

Unsurprisingly, the Grandmaster has a tremendous following that believes in apolitical patriotism, respect for the Indian Armed Forces, and great respect for a soldiers supreme sacrifice for the holy motherland. The patriots immensely respect Grandmaster Shifuji because he never shares any detail related to his MITTI Systems Freelance Commandos mentoring services for personal or professional branding.

Worlds most modern CI, CT system MITTI

About MITTI SYSTEM: Cost-free mentoring service for the Indian armed forces and Special Forces.

He is the pioneer in the elite commandos mentoring and extreme fitness MITTI boot camps industry. It is a cost-free mentoring service exclusively for the Special Forces, Indian Armed forces, CAPF, and Indian Paramilitary Forces. The confidentiality maintained by him makes this technique unique. It is the most modern armed counter-terrorism system and is considered indigenous Swadeshi Indian customized SRTs.

Information

He completed his Graduation Certification Course and PHD Certification Course from Israel.

Grandmaster Shifuji is the only foreign citizen and the first-ever Indian citizen to have completed the graduation certificate and PhD certificate from Israel in the most lethal counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and wholly equipped urban combat.

MITTI System training program is customized for armed close-quarter battles.

The program is customized for armed close-quarter battles with and without SRW or LRW. It focuses on the responsive reflexes, invisible upper body agility, strength, and the rule of NO RULE in armed direct urban warfare. He is one of the worlds top two living legends, the other being the founder & CEO of Caliber 3, Colonel Sharon Gat from Israel.

He offers many customized training programs for police verified civilians.

Grandmaster Shifuji offers many customized training programs, like MITTIHINIT, MITTI martial arts, MITTI Boot Camps, Shifujis Modern Kalaripayattu, and MITTIs Corporate Boot Camps for police verified civilians. He provides an extreme fitness routine, known as ShifujisDesi MITTI Martial Arts, HINIT program for Civil Service provisioner officers and MITTI Systems Law Enforcement training programs. He also has programs for paramilitary forces and Central Armed Police Forces.

He considers himself an ordinary Indian (EkSamanyaBharatiya), is a KallaripayattuGuruswamy.

As a patriot, Grandmaster Shifuji considers himselfEkSamanyaBharatiya, an ordinary Indian citizen. As a freelance commandos mentor, he is an expert on Customized Counter Terrorism, Counter Insurgency, Tactical modern and traditional warfare art forms, and the akhada and desi system. He is a KallaripayattuGuruswamy, one of Verm and MarmaKalaris most excellent expert guru, a Bollywood action designer, and an action consultant.

Filmy connection

He has worked with several prominent Bollywood and Israeli celebrities.

Grandmaster Shifuji is well known for being the mentor, life coach, and master of Tiger Shroff, Ahan Shetty, and Subhan Khan Nadiadwala, SufyanNadiadwala.

As an action consultant and action designer, he has worked with Warda Khan, S. Nadiadwala, and several Israeli filmmakers. He has also worked with prominent Bollywood celebrities like Ajay Devgn, John Abraham,RohitShetty, Shraddha Kapoor, Javed Jaffrey, Nora Fatehi, SudhirBabu etc.

Grandmaster takes inspiration from great revolutionaries Martyr Bhagat Singh, Martys Chandra Shekhar Azad.

Some of his notable missions include MeriMitti, Prachand Bharat Shaurya, Compulsory Military Training, Mission Muzaffarabad, ShahadatSamman, and Jai Hind Bro. Grandmaster Shifuji takes inspiration from revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, maintains a similar moustache, and wears clothes with the revolutionaries faces printed. He wants to unite the nation against threats, preparing the youth to be ready for action.

The Living Legend-

Grandmaster ShifujiShaurya Bhardwaj Sir, A Living Legend, A Grand Master on numerous missions for his motherland with The SUPREME Knowledge of customized Counter-Terrorism and Urban Warfare Mitti System. THE DEADLIEST MAN ALIVE IN THE WORLD. The deadliest man in a concrete practice for humanity and against Terrorism. A Grand Master on numerous missions for his motherland with The SUPREME Knowledge of customized Counter-Terrorism and Urban Warfare Mitti System. THE DEADLIEST MAN ALIVE IN THE WORLD. The deadliest man in a concrete practice for humanity and against Terrorism. A Grand Master on numerous missions for his motherland with The SUPREME Knowledge of customized Counter-Terrorism and Urban Warfare Mitti System. THE DEADLIEST MAN ALIVE IN THE WORLD. The deadliest man in a concrete practice for humanity and against Terrorism.Legendary Grandmaster ShifujiShaurya Bhardwaj Sir becomes the Worlds Youngest Inventor of the Most Modern Counter-Terrorism System Mitti System. He is also acknowledged as Worlds Best Commandos Mentor and Worlds Best Commando Trainer.For more information- https://www.mastershifuji.com.

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Worlds Most renowned best counter-terrorism expert of all time, The deadliest man alive in the world, Grandmaster Shifuji Shaurya Bhardwaj advances...

Ms. Steliana Nedera, Resident Representative of UNDP in Bosnia and Herezegovina, participated in launch of the Women Mentoring Network Initiative hosted by Deloitte and Addiko bank. A women-to-women mentoring program aims to empower young women in the early stages of their careers by bringing together more than 100 business women and women in the leading managerial positions in BiH to share their knowledge and experience with them.

Invest time and efforts in continuous learning, communicating effectively and strengthening networks, are three personal strategies for women leaders. said Ms. Nedera to young women participants from Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, East Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Srebrenik, Visoko, Ilija, Travnik, Kakanj, Teanj, Lukavac, Doboj, Usora, ivinice and Srebrenica. The strategic investment into gender equality pays off! UNDP has gender equality at the heart of its work and through dedicated effort, growing scale and speed, established gender parity across the organization and significant impacts for beneficiaries through its programs, added Ms. Nedera.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is one of six cross-cutting signature solutions identified in the UNDPs Strategic Plan. Besides centrality of gender equality and womens empowerment in UNDPs programming, UNDP has been working with the increasing speed towards a full parity with great success. Support to the Women Mentoring Network initiative comes within a broader context of UNDPs empowerment of women initiatives geared towards elimination of structural obstacles, building of capacities of women leaders and changing social norms that still stand in the way to realizing full leadership potential of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strengthening partnerships, collaborating to leverage each others resources, stimulating innovation are all instrumental in maximising impact and achieving a multiplier effect in the area of gender equality.

Women Mentoring Network is implemented with support of EBRD, IFC, UNDP and RCC, and includes companies across the country and in different sectors, allowing mentees to benefit through both individual mentoring and joint training, acquire knowledge in management, career development, negotiation, networking, and public speaking.

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UNDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina supports the first Women Mentoring Network Initiative - Sarajevo Times

CHICAGO, June 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the U.S. economy begins to recover from the pandemic that has gripped the world for the past year, new data from TransUnions (: TRU) Personal Lines Insurance Shopping Report shows that property insurance shopping is growing at a robust rate. Conversely, auto insurance has lagged behind 2020 levels during much of the first quarter of 2021.

Property insurance shopping has risen markedly in the last year. The three-week moving average of such shopping rose 24.6% the week of March 28, 2021 compared to the previous year. While the increase was influenced by the fact that March 2020 marked the beginning of many state lockdowns, interestingly, this marked only the second largest such increase in Q1 2021. A 26.0% year-over-year increase occurred during the week of January 3, 2021.

In comparison, auto insurance shopping rose 14.0% the week of March 28, 2021, but that increase was an outlier compared to the rest of the quarter. Auto insurance shopping rates have mostly declined or risen only slightly for much of Q1 2021 compared to the previous year.

Driving the personal lines insurance marketplace are a combination of factors, including robust growth in mortgage originations and flush consumer wallets emerging from the pandemic with expanding needs to cover homes and valuable belongings.

Based on our latest data, we expect that positive year-over-year trends will continue for personal lines insurance shopping as the economy continues to emerge from the pandemic, said Mark McElroy, executive vice president and head of TransUnions insurance business. Price continues to be the main driver of auto insurance shoppers. For property insurance shoppers however, better coverage is the main driver, perhaps owing to the fact they are in a better financial position at this point in the recovery.

Whats driving shopping behaviors?In addition to the customary market analysis found in the quarterly report, TransUnion collected a data snapshot via a high-level consumer survey in March 2021. These survey results allowed TransUnion to better understand the different motivations of auto and property insurance shoppers over the course of the pandemic.

The survey of 2,055 U.S. adults found that approximately 14% of respondents said they switched auto insurance providers since the beginning of the pandemic. Of that group, 42% said they changed because of a cheaper premium and 32% switched for better coverage. About 11% of respondents said they switched property insurance providers since the beginning of the pandemic with 36% changing to secure better coverage and 35% doing so for a lower premium.

An interesting nuance occurred during the pandemic, though, where the dynamics between personal lines insurance shopping and new loans shifted. TransUnion research found that the percent of auto insurance inquiries with a mortgage trade opened within the preceding 90 days increased from 1.5% in 2019 to 2.1% in 2020. The percent of property insurance inquiries with a mortgage trade opened within the preceding 90 days also increased to 2.4% in 2020 compared to 1.6% in 2019. While these percentage changes may seem low, the increase affected tens of thousands of insurance policies across the country.

Low interest rates, a work from home posture, and a race for space fueled the hot housing market and the likely increase in property insurance shopping, said McElroy. The housing market, though, also impacted other forms of insurance. In turn, it is now more important than ever to understand the full consumer credit picture as it has implications for varied insurance policies.

For additional insights into personal lines insurance marketplace, the full report can be accessed here.

About TransUnions Insurance Shopping Snapshot ReportThe quarterly Insurance Shopping Snapshot Report is based entirely on TransUnions internal studies. The auto insurance shopping trends reported are based on TransUnions report which is derived from TransUnions extensive database of credit data. It includes information on more than 500 million auto insurance shopping transactions from January 2016 to March 2021. The report focuses on the credit population, highlighting TransUnions data. It also explores a subset of the total insurance shopping population. The report excludes data from auto insurance customers in California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, where credit-based insurance scoring information is not used for auto insurance rating or underwriting.

About TransUnion (: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

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Weakness in Auto Insurance Offset by Continued Positive Property Insurance Trends - GuruFocus.com