Gold award for WOMENTORS from the Education Leaders Awards

The recognition of the added value that WOMENTORS offers to the Greek society continues with the Lambrakis Foundation nomination as a GOLDEN WINNER in the Education Leaders Awards. Specifically, the Lambrakis Foundation, in partnership with the organization “Mission ANTHROPOS” received the golden award in the category “Development of horizontal skills”.

Vivi Anthopoulou, General Manager of the Lambrakis Foundation, who designed WOMENTORS and coordinates its implementation, received the award yesterday during a closed award ceremony, which took place with all the protection measures against COVID-19. As the inspirer of this nationwide program for the empowerment of 9,000 women stated, “This distinction honors the Lambrakis Foundation and the Mission ANTHROPOS, which is our partner in this project for health issues. In addition, it is an honor for the Active Citizens Fund program, the so-called EEA Grants, which is run in Greece by the Bodossaki Foundation and SolidarityNow. Without the financial support of the European Economic Area (EEA), we would not be able to celebrate this success here today. Above all, however, this award is a recognition of the work of all those who collaborated to make WOMENTORS a reality. Among the many quality characteristics of WOMENTORS, the ones that I think distinguished it in this competition are that a) it puts leadership into practice, b) it cultivates a very wide range of skills and c) it addresses young women in general with their age as a unique criterion. The program differs from others that cultivate leadership as it does not remain at a theoretical level but it assigns young women carrying different knowledge and experiences with a leadership role and responsibilities from early on within a nationwide network, offering them, of course, the necessary supportive framework. WOMENTORS cultivates a wide range of skills and qualifications -indicatively empathy, self-esteem, goal setting, leadership, team management, collaboration, communication, negotiation, assertiveness, entrepreneurship etc.- and approaches issues related to life, such as the harmonization of personal and professional time, gender stereotypes, violence and victimization of women, participation in decision-making centers, etc. There are several women who so far in their educational or wider learning course have not had the opportunity to approach these issues and develop the skills we offer them. At WOMENTORS a neuroscientist from Silicon Valley with the young woman who did not manage to finish school collaborate and interact creatively in the same team. WOMENTORS is an environment of personal development and I call it an environment, because now it has taken on the characteristics of a nationwide network.

This award belongs to all those who participate in the program, but I would like to dedicate it especially to our leaders, with the hope in their lives to inspire other people in creative and developmental paths and the wish that one day they will hold a Leaders Award in their hands.”