Chime for Change, Kering Foundation Launch Campaign
● #StandWithWomen aims to expand funding of nonprofit organizations addressing the increase of genderbased violence during the pandemic.
MILAN — The coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns imposed by the governments in countries around the world have intensified gender inequalities, including violence against women. Gucci, through its Chime for Change initiative, and the Kering Foundation have teamed to launch a new campaign to fund nonprofit organizations supporting women and girls around the world.
“Now more than ever is the time to join together to protect the health, safety and human rights of girls and women around the world,” said Salma Hayek Pinault, who cofounded Chime for Change in
2013 and is a board director of the Kering Foundation.
“We stand in solidarity with women everywhere to put a stop to genderbased violence. We stand in solidarity with women everywhere because we cannot risk the progress we have made in the long fight for gender equality,” she added.
Hayek Pinault is launching the #StandWithWomen campaign today with a video message to take a stand for the safety, health and justice of all women, including women of color, transgender, indigenous and disabled women at a moment when access to health services and other resources is limited.
According to UN Women and WHO reports, there has been an increase in domestic violence cases across the world during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is also confirmed by Google Trends data, showing a 143 percent increase in queries on the search engine related to domestic violence cases worldwide, as of May 2.
Nonprofit beneficiaries of the #StandWithWomen campaign include: Chayn Italia, working in Italy; Equality Now, working in the Middle East and North Africa; Global Fund for Women, working with grassroots sister funds
Elas in Brazil; HER Fund in Hong Kong; Mediterranean Women’s Fund in France; Semillas in Mexico; Foundation for Women, working in the U.S., and Rosa Fund, working in the U.K.
Through crowdfunding partner Global Giving, contributions to this cause can be made on the dedicated globalgiving.org/ standwithwomen site.
Chime for Change has been supporting and funding more than 430 projects with 156 partners in 89 countries. To continue pursuing its mission, new members were tapped last fall to join the advisory board, which already includes Kering chairman and chief executive officer François-Henri Pinault, Madonna, Jada Pinkett Smith, Julia Roberts and a range of international activists and philanthropists.
The new members are March for Our Lives activist Sarah Chadwick; LGBTQ activist Tanya Compas, and Sage Grace Dolan-Sandrino, creative director of
Team Mag, a digital ‘zine and creative studio founded by and for young artists.
As reported, another Kering- owned brand, the Italian jewelry house Pomellato, in April launched a campaign to raise awareness on the increase in domestic abuse caused by quarantine and isolation at home during the coronavirus outbreak.
The company, which created the #PomellatoForWomen platform in 2017, kicked off the campaign with a donation of 100,000 euros to support abused women in collaboration with its brand DoDo. The funds help the organization CADMI, la Casa di Accoglienza delle Donne Maltrattate di Milano, which Pomellato has been supporting for the past 10 years and where women can seek refuge.
Kering and its Foundation have made donations through the pandemic in
China, Italy, France and the U. S., and Gucci has donated 2 million euros under the call to action “We Are All in This Together.”
The Kering Foundation has also launched an awareness campaign entitled #YouAreNotAlone, to provide information and tailored resources for women who are survivors of domestic violence and to point them toward specialist organizations in Europe and the U.S. that can provide support to them.
In France, One in Three Women, the first European network of companies committed to combating violence against women, which the Foundation cofounded in 2018, launched an awareness-raising and fundraising campaign for the Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes to ensure local organizations will have sufficient resources to support survivors of violence during lockdowns and after they have been lifted.