Celebrating a Decade of Change for Women Worldwide

Celebrating
Ten Years of Impact... 
Ten Years of Partnership...
Ten Years of Transformation.

On September 10, 2008 we recognized some of the brightest leaders in women's economic empowerment: Congresswoman Nita Lowey, MCC CEO and Ambassador John Danilovich, MCA Nicaragua Director General Juan Sebastián Chamorro, and Imara Martínez of Consejo de Mujeres de Occidente, Nicaragua (read more about our awardees). We also celebrated how far we've come in helping women and families worldwide find their own paths out of poverty.

The evening started with a reception overlooking the Capitol, Thrive-tinis (our specialty cocktail), interactive art, and music from Latin America. It continued with an awards dinner, hosted by CNN anchor and reporter Carol Costello, and products from fair trade companies World of Good and the Amber Chand Gift Collection, and finished with desserts prepared with fair trade ingredients from Divine Chocolate.

Read the Event Program

 Awardees:

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (18th-NY)

Over her nine-terms as Congresswoman from New York and as Chair of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, Representative Nita Lowey has championed the rights of women and girls in the developing world.  She has ensured U.S. government support for women’s economic opportunity, education and healthcare, and has been a leading voice in Congress calling for greater investment in women and girls worldwide. 

Read Congresswoman Lowey's acceptance speech

Ambassador John J. Danilovich, CEO, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)

Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Director General, Cuento Reto del Milenio, Nicaragua (MCA Nicaragua)

Imara Martínez, Consejo de Mujeres de Occidente, Nicaragua

Read Imara Martínez's acceptance speech

This award recognizes that truly effective development requires partnership between donor governments, developing country governments, and local civil society. As CEO of one of the largest new U.S. international  assistance programs, Ambassador Danilovich has led the MCC to adopt an unprecedented gender policy, which integrates both women’s and men’s needs into the MCC’s work. The successful partnership of the MCC with the Nicaraguan government’s MCA team and the Nicaraguan women’s organization Consejo de Mujeres de Occidente has resulted in model programs which have had a powerful initial impact on the ground.

Host for the Evening:

Carol Costello, Anchor/Reporter, CNN

Carol Costello has been a reporter and anchor at CNN since 2001. She is a contributor to The Situation Room, previously contributed to American Morning and anchored CNN Daybreak, the network's former early morning news program.  Costello has covered the 2008 presidential election, reported on the shooting at Virginia Tech, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in South East Asia and the Russian school hostage crisis and in 2003, anchored the coverage of the D.C.-area sniper case. She has interviewed four former Presidents and covered three presidential inaugurations. Costello joined CNN after five years as anchor and reporter at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. She has anchored and reported the news at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WAKR-TV in Akron, Ohio, and WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio.

Costello's work has been honored numerous times, including a 1991 Emmy Award for a special on crack and cocaine, a UPI award, several Associated Press awards and an Emmy nomination in 1993. Costello earned a degree in journalism from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.