Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan’s Remarks at the Global Mentoring Walk
Volta Gardens (following the walk)
Saturday March 7, 2020
Good Morning everyone!
I’m thrilled to be here with you this morning – I hope the walk was great! It’s great to hear from the mentors.
This year, the national celebration of Ghana’s Independence Day celebration took place in Kumasi yesterday, and I raced back to Accra this morning to be here with all of you. It was important for me to be here – even if I couldn’t participate in the walk. Because that’s what mentors do – we show up! We stand in support of one another’s initiatives, each of us bringing our individual contributions to be part of something bigger.
It is so gratifying to see so many of you here as part of the Global Mentoring Walk. When I was with many of you at the Mentoring Women Forum in January this year, we talked about how mentoring isn’t just about how we succeed as individuals. We all know that when women succeed, children are healthy and educated, and communities thrive. Women’s economic development lifts the nation up. Women today here in Ghana, in the United States, and around the world are key to the economic engine of business.
Everyone needs mentors, irrespective of gender, but because we have still not achieved gender equality in business, politics, civic life, or even domestic life, it’s imperative for women to mentor other women. By participating in this Global Mentoring Walk you are all living examples of this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Each for Equal!”
Each of you is engaged and committed to advancing gender equality, and you are part of a larger international community that joins in this event each year. Last year, the global community held 62,000 walks in 174 countries with over 15,000 participants. I am confident that 2020 will have an even greater impact. We at the U.S. Embassy are proud to partner with our Ghana Vital Voices leadership, including our very own flag bearer for today’s walk, Brigitte Dzogbenuku – thank you Brigitte for your leadership on today’s walk and all that you continue to do to advance women’s empowerment in Ghana.
And to each of you who took time this morning to show up for your sisters, aunties, mothers, daughters, friends, and colleagues – thank you for being here. Let’s continue to lift each other up as you have done today. Ayekoo!
