Hillarysworld

Clinton honors Ela Bhatt with Global Fairness Initiative Award (PPTI/The Hindu, 11/16/10)
Press Trust Of India
Washington, November 16, 2010

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday presented the first Global Fairness Initiative Award to Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association that has helped over a million women in India gain access to opportunities for themselves and their families. "She (Bhatt) has helped not only not only women in India but women in South Africa, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and inspired so many others to find their own way forward to overcome long legacies of inequality and unfairness. She has helped us imagine and then work toward a fairer world," Clinton said at the award ceremony held at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

"So for her contribution to India and particularly the women of India, and to the global community, it is my honour to present the first Global Fairness Award to my friend, Ela Bhatt," she said.

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"The work that she has done through the Self-Employed Women's Association is not only about finding solutions to the problems of poverty. At its most basic level, Ela's work is about fairness, about giving every person the chance to achieve his or her dreams, to make the most of his or her God-given potential—no matter how rich or poor, no matter whether they work in a factory or a home or on the side of a road," the Secretary of State said.

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Recipient of several prestigious awards, Ela Bhatt is known as one of the world's most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development.

She founded SEWA in 1972, is the Founder Chair of the Cooperative Bank of SEWA and the Indian School of Micro-Finance for Women.

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