Sponsored by Dupuis Langen Group, the Gender Equity Award honours an established leader, community group or organization that has made a significant difference in the work toward women’s rights.
The night’s first winner at our Awards of Impact was Dr. Farah Shroff, who took home the Gender Equity Award. Dr. Shroff is a trailblazer deeply committed to addressing gender equity from an intersectional perspective, blending innovative strategies with practical solutions to tackle systemic challenges.
As a Canadian public health leader, she has been instrumental in addressing critical issues affecting women and children. She is the founder of Maternal and Infant Health Canada, a public health organization dedicated to enhancing the wellbeing of mothers and infants globally, whose approach is rooted in cultural competence and community-driven solutions.
After coming to the stage, she asked everyone in the audience to think of someone who uplifted them and say their name aloud.
“How many of you raised your mom’s name? Was it a lot of you? I thought it would be,” she said to laughter from the audience.
“One of the reasons I work in women’s health is because of my mom. My mom was sick with a disease — a women of colour disease called systemic lupus erythematosus — pretty much all my life. I started to realize at a very young age how important it was to take care of women and also how important it is to be loved by women. Despite her illness, she was able to take really good care of her family. She also called our grandmothers, one from Pakistan, one from India, to come and help take care of us, too. There’s nothing more profound than that kind of love that is so unconditional that you’ll do anything for each other. This organization I founded is about taking that kind of mother’s love and just spreading it all over the world to uplift everybody.”
Before leaving the stage, she asked the audience to repeat after her. “I’m going to say ‘women,’ and you say ‘rights.’”
“Women” she shouted.
“Rights” the audience responded in unison.
After repeating this three times, she left the stage to enthusiastic applause.
Thank you to Dupuis Langen Group for sponsoring this award and to Despina Williams, Vice President, Consulting Services, for presenting the award.