Two Indian-American women are among 12 people named to an advisory council of the ‘Girl Up’ campaign of United Nations Foundation. The campaign focuses on young American girls and raises awareness about issues facing adolescent girls. Akila Somasegar and Anjula Acharia-Bath are among those selected with diverse backgrounds for supporting girls around the world.
Somasegar is the director of Revenue at Seattle-based start-up Buuteeq that is focused on delivering digital marketing systems for hotels, while Acharia-Bath is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Angel adviser/investor. Born and brought up in India, Somasegar is also a philanthropist focused on supporting a number of charitable groups targeting kids and women’s education and empowerment, her bio data on the Girl Up website says. Her prior work experience includes working at Microsoft Corporation in their International Accounting division. Somasegar manages her family foundation through which she drives her philanthropic activities. She and her husband live in Medina, Washington, with their two daughters.
Acharia-Bath, who co-founded the media company ‘Desi Hits!’ in 2007, has helped introduce artists like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears to emerging global markets. She was also in charge of Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra’s foray into America. Acharia-Bath been featured in several publications including, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Forbes and was named Billboard’s 2014 ‘International Power Players’ List and Billboard’s ‘Top 40 Women in Music.’
“When girls and women are empowered, communities, countries and the world benefit. When you educate girls, you educate a family, a community and a nation. I’m committed to fighting for girls, I’ve never been the quiet type to stand by and watch, and the opportunity to join Girl Up offers us a stage and sound system to make our voices heard,” Acharia-Bath said in a statement.
Somasegar and Acharia-Bath join Rhonda Medina, senior vice president and deputy general counsel of Nickelodeon Networks; Cathy Schulman, president of women in film and Mandalay Pictures, and Shaun Robinson, co-host, “Access Hollywood.” The council would help guide the campaign, focusing its efforts on helping Girl Up meet its fundraising and advocacy goals, advising on the campaign’s strategy and raising awareness among new audiences about issues facing adolescent girls, the campaign said in a statement.
The Girl Up is campaign of the UN Foundation and gives teenaged American girls the opportunity to channel their energy to raise awareness and funds for UN programs that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls.
Since its launch in 2010, the Girl Up campaign has funded UN programs that promote the health, safety, education, and leadership of girls in developing countries and built a community of nearly half a million advocates including Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan and Latin American business leader Angelica Fuentes.
The UN Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems and broadens support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach.