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The Women’s Social Leadership Awards were set up in 2007 to recognise the achievements and resilience of women using innovative and bold solutions to solve social and environmental issues.

Here are this year's Winners and finalists:

CATEGORY "SOCIAL BUSINESS LEADER 2013"

A woman founder or the leader of a social business (enterprise whose social purposes are aligned with commercial objectives), with a track record.

WINNER 2013

Benita Matofska | The People who share // compareandshare.com | UK | @benitamatofska @peoplewhoshare

Following up in the steps of Susan Aktemel, from Impact Arts and Homes for Good, who scooped the prize last year, Benita received the Social Business Leader Award. 
Benita Matofska, Chief Sharer at Compareandshare.com, leads the People who Share campaign, that explains how to make best use of resources, without necessarily buying new ones. It extends goods' life span. It creates an emotional link between people and products, it reconnects them with their local community with all the evidenced environmental, economic and social advantages. It's simple, with Compareandshare, the first aggregator of all things sharing, ( swapping, bartering, leasing, 2nd hands buying, etc) you'll be able to navigate your way into this new economy.
You can also be part of this social business adventure buy investing in them, through their Seedrs Campaign, now live here.

Highly Commended Finalists:

• Dr Jane Davis | The Reader Organisation | UK | @readerjanedavis
• Sofia Bustamante | London Creative Labs | UK | @olasofia @LonCreativeLabs

CATEGORY "LEADER IN CHARITABLE ORGANISATIONS AND CAMPAIGNS 2013"

A woman whose charitable organisation /not-for-profit / campaign / network has made waves and changed people’s lives – If your charity relies on donations/grants only, this is the right category. 

WINNER 2013

Akudo Anuanwu Ikemba | Friends Africa | Nigeria | @akudoikemba

Dr Akudo Ikemba is the CEO and Founder of Friends of the Global Fund Africa (Friends Africa), a pan-African organization that fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria using the capacity of African governments, African businesses and African community-based organizations. Dr Ikemba says: “Most of the advocates for Africa’s health are based in Europe and America where there is little knowledge about day-to-day life in Africa. Africa must have African-based advocates in all sectors of development. The critical step for the work of Friends Africa was the mobilisation of some of Africa’s best leaders to lead this advocacy”. With their HQ based in Lagos, Nigeria, Friends Africa trained over 2700 SMEs in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia through expert consultants and provided the SMEs with the necessary tools to develop Workplace Policies on AIDS, TB, Malaria and effectively manage the adoption of these policies in the workplace. So, who is best placed to “activate” the change you want to make?

Highly Commended Finalists:

• Brinda Crishna | VAANI - Deaf's Children Foundation | India | @VaaniDCF 
• Madalina Mocan | Ratiu Foundation for Democracy | Romania | @ratiucenter

CATEGORY "LEADER IN THE WORKPLACE / INTERMEDIARY 2013"

A woman providing global / regional activities reaching other social businesses, community groups, charities or campaigns (Consortium leaders, SVI, Consultants, Impact Investors, Angels, Giving platforms); Or a woman leading a CSR initiative, a department or a corporate initiative that contributes to social and/or environmental change.

WINNER 2013 

Jeroo Billimoria | Child Youth Finance International  | The Netherlands | @JerooBillimoria@ChildFinance

A bank account for every child

Jeroo Billimoria founded Child Helpline in India and grew internationally. After 150 million phone calls, that were largely related to abuse, she discovered that the root of abuse was the lack of self-confidence and lack of money. She started to tackle the issue with street children, because they were the most entrepreneurial, and set up structures to provide financial and social education, and access to the financial system. Through Child and Youth Finance International, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, she also works within existing systems and structures to educate children about money in primary schools.

Jeroo argues that even in the poorest areas, children can save even 1 cent. Some can save up to 50c a year, and sometimes even two to three Dollars, with which they buy slippers and food and they can attend school. 

But in all cases, she noticed that even with the best savings attempts, if children don't have a bank account, they will in most cases remain in poverty.

Jeroo campaigns to have every bank provide children with a bank account.

Highly Commended Finalists

• Kathryn Llewellyn | Positive Women | Wales & Swaziland | @kat_llewellyn @positive_women 
• Marcelle Speller | LocalGiving | UK | @marcellespeller @localgiving

THE PEOPLE'S VOTE

The Judges have selected 9 finalists and appointed a winner in each of the 3 categories.

We also wanted YOU to choose your favourite finalist for a special People's Vote. And this year's People's Vote Award winner is:

Sofia Bustamante | London Creative Labs | UK | @olasofia @LonCreativeLabs

Helping people to be seen as assets, not liability.

Sofia Bustamante: People's Vote winner in the Ogunte Women's Social Leadership Awards 2013

Nurturing individuals and their capacities is how Sofia Bustamante, Founder at London Creative Labs , ensures people re-engage with hope, prospects, self-development, and employment. Imagine a space where Grameen meets The Wire...
By inviting long term unemployed to engage in local network-based peer-to-peer coaching, London Creative Labs creates a ripple effect throughout the community. Participants think through what their community needs, and how they can contribute to the best of their ability, not just through stacking shelves for the sake of it because someone said it’s what apprentices or unemployed people should do. Creating a coaching culture is fundamental to help people ask themselves the right questions at the right time and make best use of the few contacts they have. 
Sofia succeeds to 2012 Winner Donna Morton from First Power Canada, who gave her away the People's Vote Awards, in a video message from Vancouver, Canada.

So, when have you been coached lately? And how can you do more of what you are best at?

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Social Business Leader - 2013

Think of London Creative Labs as “Grameen meets The Wire”. It's about unleashing individual and collective economic potential in deprived urban areas.

I saw a need to address *creation* of meaningful work, not just getting more people into work. 

Work is linked to health and self-esteem. Poverty is a man-made creation. We can turn it around. We want to help the most disadvantaged become leaders in turning this around. We’ve seen evidence that they can. 

The labs are helping communities and individuals to use what they *have* to address what they *need*. We start with most social excluded first to ensure an inclusive solution.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Social Business Leader 2013

Dr Jane Davis: A journey of personal transformation

Once a vulnerable child and school truant, dealing with family problems including alcoholism, literature offered clear spaces, escape routes, truth. I left school with 2 GCSEs but returned to education as a young single mother, working in cafes while completing A Levels before taking up a place to study English Literature at University, gaining a first class degree. Following a PhD I taught for fifteen years in the Department of Continuing Education, and from a small outreach project in Birkenhead, I have led what is now called the ‘Reading Revolution.’

My organisation, The Reader Organisation (TRO), envisages a world in which everyone has access to literature, and in which personal responses to books are freely shared in reading communities in every area of life.

Our mission is to build a Reading Revolution.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Social Business Leader - 2013

My vision is to build a thriving Sharing Economy where we share to live and live to share; where the need to own is transformed into the desire to access. Everyone can be a supplier of goods and services; collective capability meets common interest and we collaborate to protect our planet - creating wealth for common benefit. Preaching environmentalism has failed to engage mainstream audiences; our strategy is building a fun, consumer-facing brand, compareandshare.com - the world’s first aggregator of the Sharing Economy, a one stop comparison marketplace where people can easily save / make money by sharing resources.

Think of CompareandShare.com as "moneysupermarket.com meets The Mesh!"

Via the Global Sharing Day campaign, we reach over 60 million people in 147 countries. Where Global Sharing Day activities occur, sharing increases, community bonds grow, people consume more sustainably (carbon lowered by 10.38 tonnes and 35, 418 items diverted from landfill on Nov 14th 2012) 

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in Charitable Organisations and Campaigns 2013

What is your vision, Brinda?

My vision is to advocate for the right of every deaf child to a full and complete life with respect and dignity.

I am promoting the entitlement of every deaf child to total and complete access to communication, education, protection and personal safety, equity and equality in all spheres and information and knowledge to reach his or her full potential as an individual and as a member of society. 

VAANI aims at positively influencing external stakeholders to develop more favourable policies in regard to disability and deafness. This is why we advocate the need for early intervention and quality services to deaf infants and children.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in Charitable Organisations and Campaigns 2013

What's your vision?

Dignity and solidarity between human beings are the core values that inspire and found my professional as well as my personal life. I believe in a society in which individuals are treated and treat others with dignity and, by doing so, create social ties that generate trust beyond family, profession, ethnicity or private interest. Through the projects which I have initiated and implemented as a civil society professional, volunteer, and citizen, I have aimed to create „more equal” relations between individuals and those in power, either by nurturing dialogue or empowering the former to monitor and hold elected officials accountable, as part of a larger social contract in which those electing and those elected are co-signers. Equally important for living in a society with dignity is equal access to justice. We support justice for those affected by violence, be it perpetrated by other human beings or by the state.

How do you create change?

We work at different levels: the individual, small group and community level, and we seek to empower them to change the power relations that are unjust (unfair laws, discriminatory policies, threatening circumstances).

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in Charitable Organisations and Campaigns 2013

Dr Akudo Anyanwu Ikemba’s vision is an African continent free of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. An African woman and a mother of three children with a passion for Africa’s health, she founded Friends Africa (Friends of the Global Fund Africa) as an African voice in support of the Global Fund and the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

A post-graduate from Tufts, Harvard, Lehigh and Duke, among others, she returned home to play a role in revolutionizing Africa’s health care.

Her objective is to mobilize and build capacity for the African private sector, civil society and government to improve Africa’s health using advocacy, technical assistance, capacity building and documentation. 

The Friends Africa story is a story of commitment from Africa towards Africa.

It’s a story of organic social entrepreneurial rigor.

A story of very small incremental successes that have added up and a story of innovative engagement of an under-engaged sector – the African Private sector.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in the Workplace / Intermediary 2013

Marcelle Speller OBE, who co-founded, built and sold the hugely successful Holiday-Rentals.com business, applied her know-how to pioneer a digital platform that helps build communities by enabling the smallest, and therefore most vital, local community groups and charities to raise money, awareness and support online.  

Working together with UK Community Foundations and other partners, Speller committed four years and £2.5m of her personal wealth to develop Localgiving.com. Inspired by the service that small, unregistered groups provide to their communities, Speller’s dotcom brainchild has given them access to new donors and new ways to increase awareness and raise funds. This includes social media and online matching using grants from the government’s Office for Civil Society and other private philanthropists.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in the Workplace / Intermediary 2013

Our vision is simple, a world where everyone should feel positive about their future and have an equal chance to thrive regardless of where they are born or their gender. 

I co-founded Positive Women to support women and children across Africa to create a better future for themselves, starting with Swaziland. We do this through creating innovative fundraising and awareness raising campaigns and by directly supporting communities to create solutions to their complex challenges.

The work we undertake work in Swaziland focuses on providing a holistic programme of support that is designed and implemented by local partners and community members. These community members are mainly women and children and the programmes target education, health, nutrition, human rights and providing income generation opportunities.

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Finalist Women's Social Leadership Awards | Category Leader in the Workplace / Intermediary 2013

Jeroo’s vision is to see every child become empowered with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and become responsible economic citizens. She has dedicated her life to creating the systematic change that will ensure that children and youth have a voice, build their self-confidence, are able to obtain sustainable livelihoods, enhance level of employability, and begin their ascent from poverty.

Jeroo’s current organization, Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) seeks to do this through building the financial capabilities of all children and youth. As a first step defined in CYFI strategy document, the organization has targeted to reach 100 million children in 100 countries to ensure that they receive financial education and access to appropriate financial services. In the short 19 months of the organization’s existence, the organization is fast approaching this target, having reached 18 million children in 83 countries. 

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7th OGUNTE Women's Social Leadership Awards

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The 2012 Women's Social Leadership Award Winners, were a great global vintage. It proves that with determination, discipline, resilience and impactful connections, women social entrepreneurs and activists can make a real difference.

Judge and event supporter Melanie Stubbing, President, Europe Weight Watchers Inc says: "I am delighted that these women have been recognised for the incredible impact they're making through their innovative ideas, courage and sheer hard work. They are tenacious and committed social entrepreneurs and every one of us, both men and women, have so much to learn from their passion, creativity and sheer determination to achieve success. In a world that is struggling with economic uncertainty, we need future thought leaders and facilitators like these women to challenge conventions and strive for better."