GUCCI Celebrates CHIME FOR CHANGE: One Year of Impact

In 2013, the world was wowed by the star-studded Chime for Change: The Sound of Change Live Concert, presented by GUCCI’s CHIME FOR CHANGE, which raised awareness and funds for girls’ and women’s empowerment. Since then, the campaign has funded 310 projects in 81 countries through 101 non-profit partners.

To mark the concert’s one-year anniversary, CHIME FOR CHANGE co-founders, Frida Giannini and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reunited at the GUCCI Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York together with Deborah Needleman, Editor-in-Chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

The trio hosted a celebratory party with a noteworthy mix of fashion, NGO, business and policy leaders, graced by CHIME FOR CHANGE Managing Editor, Mariane Pearl, actress Blake Lively and DJs singer/songwriter Solange Knowles, Ian from I Am A Camera and R3hab.

At the event, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter donated $500,000 to CHIME projects for girls and women in the areas of education, health and justice:

Education:
–  $125,000 to support 100 schoolgirls at Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) schools in Kenya for one year.

Health:
–  $125,000 to provide 320 ‘Embrace’ infant warmers to 100 rural health facilities in 11 Millennium Village sites across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  These will help more than 1,900 at-risk newborns survive and thrive.

Justice:
–  $125,000 to provide 600 ‘Sisters in Strength’ Youth Leaders and Alumni in New York City with the critical educational and mentoring support, job training, counseling services, and resources they need to successfully navigate and graduate from high school and college through ‘Girls for Gender Equity’.

–  $125,000 to provide 25 human trafficking survivors in Los Angeles with counseling, medical care, legal services, and individual recovery treatment to rebuild their lives through the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST).

GUCCI will also donate 10% of sales in its Fifth Avenue flagship store from June 2 – 5 to support CHIME FOR CHANGE projects promoting education, health and justice for girls and women.

To further celebrate the anniversary, co-founder Frida Giannini lent her voice to girls education through a Huffington Post piece, ‘Let’s Keep Girls’ Education in the Global Spotlight’.  Highlighting the recent kidnapping of over 270 girls in Nigeria, she noted that ‘more than just bringing back the girls of Chibok, we must bring justice to all girls, everywhere’.  In her words, ‘now is the time to protect girls’ security and access to education worldwide’.

Founded by GUCCI, a GBC-Education company, CHIME FOR CHANGE serves to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for girls and women around the world.  It works to ‘promote education, health and justice for every girl, every woman, everywhere’.

Watch the CHIME FOR CHANGE one-year anniversary film: