Women in Business Development Inc News Release
27 April 2015
For Immediate Release
HEADLINE: Tafunai honoured with second global award
CAPTION: The DVF Awards saw powerful women recognized for their work at the
Women in the World Summit at the United Nations in New York recently. Pictured
are: (back row left-to-right) Award presenters Dakota Fanning, Hilary Clinton,
Diane Von Furstenberg, Naomi Campbell, and Maggie Gyllenhaal; (front row leftto-right) Honorees Adimaimalaga Tafunai, Tina Brown, Samar Minallah Khan,
Melanne Verveer, Becky Straw, and Gabriel Giffords.
CAPTION 2: Supermodel and actor Naomi Campbell presented Women in Business
Development executive director Adimaimalaga Tafunai with an International DVF
Award at the United Nations in New York last week.
BEGINS
Women in Business Development’s Adimaimalaga Tafunai has been honoured
with a second global award – this time a DVF Award that was presented at the
United Nations in New York.
The DVF Awards were created in 2010 by Diane von Furstenberg and the Dillervon Furstenberg Family Foundation to honor and support extraordinary women.
The star-studded ceremony last week matched awardees with powerful
presenters that included presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, supermodel
Naomi Campbell, and actresses Dakota Fanning and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The New York Times covered the event, reporting that Diane Von Furstenberg
said that the fight for women’s equality around the world is far from over.
“The situation for women in the world is not what it should be. And we are
regressing,” she said, citing violence against women and human trafficking as
pressing concerns. “Let us remember, if we have a voice, it is our obligation and
privilege to use that voice for those who have none.”
Tafuna’i, one of two international awardees working within the Vital Voices
network, says she was honoured and encouraged by the faith shown in her work
for the people of Samoa and the Pacific Islands.
Tafuna’i has led Women in Business Development for more than 20 years. Her
first global award was for economic empowerment from the Vital Voices
Foundation in 2012. In December last year, she was also made a Member of the
Order of Samoa.
Tafuna’i was recognized for her work building sustainable economies in Samoa
and other Pacific island nations, where families are often split apart when adults
leave to find work elsewhere. “We are so isolated from markets,” she said, so she
has helped Samoa develop small markets of its own by educating women and
helping keep them in their communities.
She has also been instrumental in promoting organic agriculture and ethical
trade in the Pacific. “It’s important that we make trade fair and that we make
sure that the benefits of any trade goes back to the people.”
Through Tafuna’i’s work, Samoan organic virgin coconut oil is now an export in
high demand, and a key ingredient in more than 30 products distributed by The
Body Shop. Women in Business Development has had a long partnership with NZ
Aid and Oxfam NZ in implementing its programmes in Samoa.
The Lifetime Leadership Award was presented to Ambassador Melanne Verveer,
who was appointed the United States’ first Ambassador-at-Large for Global
Women’s Issues at the State Department in 2009. Verveer directs Georgetown
University’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. “If we just look at women
as victims, no matter what they endure, we will never see them for the leaders
that they are,” said Verveer.
The second Vital Voice Award went to filmmaker and activist Samar Minallah
Khan, who has spent her life documenting cultural forms of violence against
women in Pakistani communities, from honor killings to the use of dowries in
marriages.
The Inspiration Award went to Gabrielle Giffords, who has dedicated her life to
fighting gun violence after being shot in 2011 while serving as a U.S.
Representative from Arizona.
The People’s Choice Awards went to co-founder and CEO of The Adventure
Project Becky Straw and activist Jody Landers.
ENDS