Seychelles launches a Women of the World (WOW) chapter |28 October 2022
A souvenir photograph to mark the occasion (Photo: Joena Meme)
Women from different strata of society yesterday met for a first meeting to launch a Women of the World (WOW) chapter in Seychelles.
This will allow Seychelles to host the first WOW festival in the region.
The launch was done in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family at the Savoy Resort and Spa and was attended by the WOW founder Jude Kelly and the First Lady of Seychelles, Linda Ramkalawan.
It was the Minister for Youth, Sports and Family, Marie-Celine Zialor, who officially launched the first meeting and ministers Patricia Francourt and Rose-Marie Hoareau came to support the movement.
The WOW foundation exists to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required.
Minister Zialor shared that Seychelles as a small island state has achieved many milestones and the WOW foundation is a strong foundation that works for gender equality.
“We firmly believe in that and we invited the founder here to have a meeting and discuss how Seychelles can host the first ever WOW festival in the Indian Ocean and Southern African region. The meeting will allow participants to discuss how the first ever WOW festival can be organised here, where, when, and who will be the main partners. At the end of the session, we hope to have a roadmap for the festival,” Minister Zialor said.
Minister Zialor also said that her ministry wants to be present on international platforms to show the progress we have made in sectors such as environment, human rights etc. “We need the world to come to Seychelles to discuss topics that affect the whole of humanity and our country should be the leading state in the region.”
The Women of the World was founded by Jude Kelly in 2010, when the first WOW festival took place at Southbank Centre. Since then, WOW festivals celebrating women and girls, and taking a frank look at the obstacles they face, have taken place across the globe, reaching five million people to date.
Dame Jude exclaimed she was thrilled to be on our paradise island. “We had this wonderful invitation from your Minister for Youth, Sports and Family. She said this is a paradise place and we believe we can be incredibly powerful for the whole world. And I believed her! We do WOWs across the world and we do not have one in this region and we always come when there is a powerful invitation from a group women who say we have ambition, we have belief to make change happen.”
The founder explained that through festivals, events, schools’ programmes and more, WOW challenges the belief that gender equality has already been achieved – and hopes to join the dots between people, movements and ideas to change the world.
In 2018 Jude Kelly left her role as artistic director of Southbank Centre to focus solely on the development of WOW as an independent charity. The WOW foundation was established to fulfil WOW’s potential.
To date, WOW has staged over 100 festivals and events across six continents, reaching more than five million people.
“If you identify as a woman or know a woman, WOW is for you,” stated Jude Kelly.
Vidya Gappy