2021 is finally here and I’m sure, like me, you were glad to see the end of 2020. It was a difficult year for everyone and a horrible year for most.

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Some of us lost friends and family members, jobs, homes and businesses. And many are alone or separated from loved ones, during a time when we most need to be with them.

Although it was a tough year, one thing we have seen is our ability to stand strong together, to make our voices heard and to be a helping hand for those in need.

Despite all the pain, suffering, loss and uncertainty – love and compassion shone through in the darkest days of 2020 and that gives me hope that no matter what is still ahead, we can get through it together.

To those who have served and continue to serve on the frontlines, we are eternally in your debt.

Thank you.

I am personally so grateful for this community and its members – you have been my strength and my inspiration. My hope is that many of you feel the same way.

I’m also thankful for the platforms and tools that connect us, even when we can’t be physically together. And I am reminded that while all of us here are very privileged to have access to these, there are so many who do not.

As you know, my personal advocacy for the last 15 years has been to help women gain access to the training, tools and connectivity for the future of work.

Through Connected Women, with the hard work of the team and the dedication of the leaders who stand with us, we have started to make this vision a reality.

This 2021, together with our members and partners, Connected Women renews our commitment to this mission, to ensure that no woman, or her family, is left behind.

I would like to thank each and every one of you, for your support in 2020 and for the year to come.

2020 Highlights

The Connected Women team battled through the pandemic to continue our mission to empower women through technology and meaningful work.

Our partnership with Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness transitioned online and 1,254 women entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs learned how to grow their business with Digital Marketing.

We partnered with UN Women to transition our Global Meetups online with 1,235 women from the Philippines and all over the world joining the conversation themed #WomenRiseAboveCovid.

We also ran Facebook LIVE sessions including online health forums, tax and business registration seminars, discussions on tourism, digital literacy and inspiring member success stories.

Watch the CW 2020 Community Highlights:

In addition to the community events, we trained 215 displaced and low-income women for work as data annotators in the Artificial Intelligence Industry.

A huge thank you to UN Women WeEmpowerAsia, Sanofi, Smart and the Isabela Basilan LGU for funding the pilot and making this program possible.

Meet some of our Elevate AIDA graduates in this video – and have your tissues ready!

Awards and Recognition

Connected Women was honoured to be recognised at the 2020 #WeEmpowerAsia (Women’s Empowerment Principles) awards for our fast and innovative response to the pandemic.

Our award winning COVID-19 response was also featured by UN Women in this inspiring video.

A Message from Tehmina Chaudhry
Community Leader – CW Pakistan

Covid-19 struck a massive hit on the economy globally and the scenario has been quite tensile for businesses in Pakistan; particularly women led businesses suffered a huge blow and struggled to cope with maintaining their presence in the industry.

In these trying times, Connected Women-Pakistan proved to be a cool breeze for women entrepreneurs and women owned businesses. Ever since the pandemic induced lockdown was initiated, Connected Women Pakistan team geared up to support women owned business through different initiatives. It arranged business clinics and workshops to better utilize the online medium to boost their sales; organized a Virtual Shopping Spree for women owned SMEs in Ramzan that featured many businesses and provided them with a platform to widen their reach and increase their sales; and only recently it organized a massive entrepreneurship challenge titled ‘Connected Women Pakistan Entrepreneurship Challenge’ solely for women owned businesses.

These are the unprecedented times Connected Women showed its full support to its Community by showing the will and determination to face these challenges together.

A Message from Louisa Lee
Community Leader – CW Singapore

For our lively group of professional women who valued face-to-face networking time, 2020 took an unexpected turn with COVID-19 hitting.

We suspended all our physical meet-ups and traded them in for the virtual kind. Understanding the demand for being digitally savvy, we hit the ground running with programmes that aimed to equip our members with knowledge to optimise their LinkedIn presence and build their brand on Instagram.

In Singapore, we also benefitted from the global Connected Women programmes that were made accessible due to the pandemic.

What’s Next?

As always the team are working hard to put together this year’s programs.

Save the date for the first Community-led Online Meetup of 2021 on Wednesday, January 27th. We will be in touch with more details soon!

Support Our Work

Do you know a company that would like to make women’s empowerment a part of their CSR this 2021? We are looking for new program partners to scale our impact.

Please contact [email protected]

Thank you again for all your amazing support, we could not do this without you. We look forward to working with you in a brighter 2021!

Until we meet again, stay healthy and safe ❤️