Empowers Africa Annual Event 2015
Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 - The Explorers Club, NYC
Empowers Africa Annual Gala Event Honoring Global Witness & Patrick Alley, Chairman Gooch & Simon Taylor Co-Founding Directors of Global Witness
Empowers Africa, a non‑profit foundation based in the United States that supports programs on the ground in Sub‑saharan Africa, held its annual gala dinner at The Explorers Club in New York City on April 23rd, 2015. The event raised over $150,000 for human empowerment and wildlife protection in Africa. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Richard Wiese, Host and Producer of ABC series “Born to Explore.” The Auctioneer was Eliza Osborne, Executive Director at the Centre Pompidou Foundation. Guests included: Beth Rudin DeWoody, Dennis Basso, Nina Griscom, Chris Mack, Jenny Kennedy, Sandra Ripert and Jennifer Creel. The auction consisted of prints by Firooz Zahedi and Andy Biggs and exotic trips to Botswana, Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Chad and Zimbabwe.
The organization honored Global Witness and its co‑founding directors Patrick Alley, Charmian Gooch & Simon Taylor ‑ winners of the 2014 Ted Prize and the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Their work includes investigating and documenting environmental crimes depicted in the 2006 blockbuster Blood Diamond and the 2015 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature Virunga. 100% of the proceeds from the event will be granted to wildlife protection and human empowerment projects in Africa.
Empowers Africa is a 501(c)(3) that focuses on funding programs in communities that surround protected conservation and wildlife areas or World Heritage sites; programs in urban communities where tourism is a strong source of development; and programs that support the protection of wildlife and land conservation.