A New Cohort of World Pulse Leaders Is Ready to Accelerate Change

Meet the Community Champions who are mobilizing the World Pulse Community on issues of Gender-Based Violence, Environment, Technology & Innovation, Economic Empowerment, and Leadership.

When World Pulse launched our first two topic groups—economic Empowerment and Leadership—at the beginning of the year, no one could predict the course these groups would take on six months later. The groups were launched with a loose structure and a broad mandate. It was the group members themselves who would develop the prioritiesand transform World Pulse Groups into living communities of action.

Community members naturally gravitate to others with shared interests and visions for the world, and World Pulse Groups were created to facilitate these connections. Groups strengthen thecamaraderie among grassroots leaders immersed in similar challenges across borders.

A new volunteer role of Community Champion was introduced in January to lead the groups and harness this collective energy. The first four Community Champions pioneered this increasingly community-led model on World Pulse. They found ways to collaborate over time zones, difficult Internet access, and a number of other obstacles. They piloted new engagement techniques. Theyshowed what is possible when women's solutions and perspectives are showcased instead of sidelined, when women have the opportunityto support each other as leaders. They proved that an individual is better equipped to create change on the ground when she has a global online community behind her. Now, as the six-month term of the first cohort of Community Champions wraps up, they are sharing their wisdom and passing the baton to the next group of leaders.

World Pulse recently launched three new topic groups in response to a community hunger for opportunities to collaborate on a deeper level. Gender-Based Violence, Environment, and Technology & Innovation groups now join Economic Empowerment and Leadership—all topics that have united the community through past campaigns or emerged strongly in online journal posts. Thirteen new community champions are already cooking up exciting plansfor the next six months, and they are inviting participation and collaboration to make these plans a reality. Greengirl, who facilitated the Leadership group as a Community Champion in the last round has volunteered to continue on as anadviserwith these groups as they evolve, especially in her passion area, the environment.

The Community Champion role is adapted to each leader's unique talents, experiences, and vision for the group. Collectively, Community Champions are prepared to moderate discussion, recruit and welcome new members, nurture and encourage emerging voices, facilitate connections, and unite women and allies around the world in action on some of the most potent challenges we face today.

\"Nothing is as strong as sharing stories for change, \" says Nakinti, a Community Champion from Cameroon. She speaks as someone whose own stories about the practice of breast ironing in her country have drawn awareness and support from accross the globe. Each Community Champion has honed her vision and voice through World Pulse's Voices of Our Future training.

\"A leadership role affords me the opportunity to serve the global online community that has sustained me on theground for four years, \" says libudsuroy, Community Champion in the Philippines. Several other World Pulse leaders echoed the sentiment, attributing their motivation for the role to the increased leadership and confidence gained through online connections on World Pulse, and the desire to give back to others.

It is an exciting time as a new set of leaders brings fresh energy to pressing topics on World Pulse. We invite you to get to know these leaders. Join a group, connect with the community champions, and share your ideas.

Introducing Our New Community Champions

Economic Empowerment Group

I'm looking forward to being a Community Champion because. .. I am a true believer that many of the problems that women face worldwide are in a way or another a result of economic dependence. On a personal level, I want to be contributing to the good of the human society. And what's better than volunteering to a cause I greatly believe in, which is the economic empowerment of women?

Favorite words of wisdom: \"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of asecond-rate version ofsomebody else. \"—Judy Garland

my inspiration: my mother. She is illiterate and became a widow at 44 with seven children. Her words: “I wanted education but I was not given the opportunity because I was a girl, but all of you my children must go to school so that you can achieve what I am not able to achieve. ”

How I would describe World Pulse to a friend: The World Pulse community is place where you can thrive, where you can discover your potentials and make good use of them.

How my friends would describe me in three words: Focused, determined, passionate.

I will know this group is successful when. .. We have a solid implementation of an idea learned through the group discussions and sharings.

Environment Group

My vision for change:

Kashmir was flooded recently with theworst flood of the decade. We all havebeen very badly affected by it, but what is worse is thatit is partly our own creation. Climate Change is real for all of us whether we admitit or not. I want to work on environmental issues to findhow we can actually move things.

I'm looking forward to being a Community Champion because. .. Theplatform exposes me to not only the challengesfaced, but also to the thought

process of many, which can give an insight in finding a wayout of the challenges.

How my friends would describe me in three words: Energizer (the battery—once you plug me, it is hard to stop); GPS (Networker—able to connect people by interests and I'm familiar with the events that are happening around); Green Peace (I have been always careful about where I put the garbage, reusing, recycling, protecting the living beings—even the smallest ones like mosquitoes).

My inspiration: Our world pulse community—women who are motivated to bring the change.

Gender-Based Violence Group

i am looking forward to. .. Building a strong sisterhood where members will be their sister’s keeper.

My Leadership style is. .. VISIONARY. I love moving with people towards a vision.

My numberone priority is. .. To help women stand for their rights by identifying, preventing, and fleeing from situationsof gender-based violence.

My vision for change: Iwould like to see women accessing this online platform to pour out their mind whenever they need sisters who can listen to their issues without judging them based on society, culture, and religion.

How I would describe World Pulse to a friend: A community that acts like a mountain behind every sister.

Favorite words of wisdom: \"Every day is a journey, and every journey itself is home. \"—The haiku poet Matsuo Basho. It speaks to and resonates with my struggles as a wandering/wondering woman.

My leadership style: I seek to embodythe ways of servant leadership.

Random fact: I will finally have my college diploma this year—after meandering for more than two decades!

Leadership Group

How I would describe World Pulse to a friend: a mirror of life, reflecting our own wisdom. The mirror helpsus to talk about anything and everything before itinan eternal pool of women's empowerment, without any fear of getting mocked.

My leadership style: I am a strong believer in participative leadership, where my role rests on thecollective mind of the group that I am leading.

My vision for change: Equalityrequires that women all over the planet recover their self-esteem to re-find and re-define the power oftheir voice.

I am looking forward to being a Community Champion because. .. As a peace-journalist, I am so excited to know other people and other realities. I am totally sure that Iwill learn more than I could teach. I am very excited to learn more about my own heart by listening to other hearts and cultures, dialoguing, searching for common grounds to make this planet a better place to live.

Technology & Innovation Group

i'm looking forward to being a Community Champion because. .. World Pulse has proven that a single voice may notbe heard but all voices coming together as one ispowerful! I'd Like to be able to help other women online andat the same time bring many more women to cometo know about World Pulse so that they too can share their story to change their world.

Random fact: I've started writing some children's stories with my children, which we hope to publish and sell. My daughter, aged, 9, is doing the illustrations.

My inspiration: people who find new paths in desperate times.

How my friends would describe me: Kind, patient and passionate about helping women discovering their inner voices.

My vision for change: Irealize how important it isto engage women in knowing their online rights, and in dealing withrisks related to the ubiquitous use of onlineplatforms. I would like to see growing awareness in this field, how to take and give safely.

My vision for change: I would like to see and experience women from the grassroots level raising their voice and making it heard aroundthe globe through online media.

Why online? With online mediayou can be heard from any part of the world, whether you are a great person living in a big city or aleader living in a small community in Nepal.

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Dive Deeper: We invite you to join these leaders and take part in the Economic Empowerment, Environment, Gender-Based Violence, Leadership, and Technology & Innovation groups.