We were thrilled that some of the nation’s most influential women gathered to judge our Women of the Future awards.
Each year, The Weekly sets out to find inspirational young women who give their time, energy and considerable enthusiasm to help others.
As First Lady Lucy Turnbull said of the entrants, “Each one of them, in their own way, will change the world.”
Attendees at the judges’ lunch included Mrs Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, the Today show’s Lisa Wilkinson, Qantas executive Olivia Wirth and The Weekly’s Kim Doherty.
The winners of the 2016 The Australian Women’s Weekly/Qantas Women of the Future awards will be announced on September 1.
Our inaugural winner from 2013 reveals that the prize changed her life.
Susanna Matters was half way through university, wondering where to go in life, when she suddenly found herself at a camp in Muhaka, Kenya. There she met a group of women called the Pink Chapati Ladies, who told her exactly where to go.
The Pink Chapatis are a group of women who cut and sew ‘chapatis’, or reusable menstrual pads, for women and young girls. The pads, which are made from a simple pattern and require little cloth, provide a means for women to attend to their menstrual cycles efficiently – and healthily.
Girls equipped with chapatis are able to go to school while having a period, and as well as avoiding using unhealthy and unsanitary alternatives, such as dirty rags and cow dung. (Without this initiative, girls had to stay home.)
Susanna saw the work of these women, and began Goods For Girls, an non-for-profit organisation that raises money for the making and distribution of these chapatis.
It is for her work with Goods For Girls that Susanna won our Women of the Future award in 2013, and checking in with her since then it is clear that her winning was a huge boost to her foundation.
“It’s having an impact nationally,” she says, “Just in terms of awareness – having people be aware of the issue of sanitation and the awareness of things like sanitary pads in general – people are being more proactive about having that conversation.”
Susanna revealed to us, that she put her winnings from the sponsorship towards building a private toilet block for girls in the area, as well as supplying over 2000 girls with reusable sanitary pads.
You can read more in the September issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale August 4.
Attendees at the judges’ lunch included Lucy Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, the Today show’s Lisa Wilkinson, Qantas executive Olivia Wirth and The Weekly’s Kim Doherty.
Lucy Turnbull and Julie Bishop.
Lisa Wilkinson.
Lucy Turnbull and Julie Bishop.
All of our judges at our luncheon.
