New Delhi :  More than 150 women got together for the Global Mentoring Walk 2013 in Gurgaon and Mumbai which was organized by Biz Divas Foundation. Established women leaders were matched with young professionals to serve as mentors, offering career advice, support, and guidance. As they walked through neighborhoods and city streets, they demonstrated the power of women coming together to shape the future of their communities.

The concept for this Global Mentoring Walk is derived from American media icon, founder and former CEO of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne, who launched mentoring walks to empower young women professionals in New York City and across the United States.

Each year, dedicated members of the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network invest in the next generation of women leaders by organizing local mentoring walks. Sarika Bhattacharyya, Co-Founder of Biz Divas Foundation and an alumnus of Vital Voices Network volunteered her organization Biz Divas Foundation to be the flag bearer for this walk.

“The Global Mentoring Walk is a perfect opportunity to bring together Indian women leaders and accelerate their impact through mentoring and make a difference to our community” said Sarika Bhattaryya, Co-Founder of Biz Divas Foundation.

Biz Divas Foundation is a national forum for empowering women with entrepreneurial, business and financial skills. Biz divas recognizes that mentoring is critical to empower women to succeed and for advancing women’s leadership for the future.

At this occasion Biz Divas also launched a new Campaign “One Woman in Boardroom (ONE W.I.B)”.  Boardroom here is symbolic to corporate boardrooms, Business Boardroom and Bureaucracy boardroom .

This year’s mentoring walk received widespread support and acknowledgement from various partners. The walk is being supported by Open Forum, a Crosshairs Communication initiative and brainchild of the firm’s Founder Ms. Stuti Jalan which is integrated in the ethos of the company. Open Forum is a community of mentors and mentees and believes in mentoring through various channels and bring about an inclusive change.

Ms. Debjani Ghosh, MD (South Asia), Intel  and Ms. Apurva Purohit, CEO, Radio City were the lead speaker in Gurgaon and Mumbai respectively and they talked about their personal journeys as leaders and the importance of mentorship. As they walk, they engage in discussion regarding their professional challenges and successes to establish a mentoring relationship and hence demonstrate the power of women coming together to shape the future of their communities.

The overall goal of this Global Mentoring Walk is to value women’s participation in society, to recognize the importance of “paying it forward” by giving back to others in the community, to promote lasting mentoring relationships between emerging and established women leaders, to demonstrate a belief in the importance of women’s leadership & participation in society, to instill the values of mentoring in rising leaders who can give back to future generations and provide aspiring women professionals with the support & guidance they need to fulfill their goals.

Source : Saumya