World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and Dove Self-Esteem Project Highly Commended at the Better Society Awards

12 May 2023
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The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and Unilever’s Dove Self-Esteem Project (DESP) have been recognised for their unique ten year global programme Free Being Me at this year’s Better Society Awards.

The Better Society Awards recognizes organisations that are helping to create a better, more equal, world for all and this year The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and Unilever’s Dove Self-Esteem Project (DESP) received the Highly Commended Award for a ‘Partnership with an International Charity’. The award celebrates a transformational global programme empowering millions of young people through improving body-confidence and self-esteem.

Better Society Award

Girls worldwide are increasingly under pressure to achieve impossibly ‘perfect’ beauty standards. A Dove study found that 74% of girls who use social media believe they are put under pressure to look a certain way. This seriously impacts girls’ physical and mental health. Low body confidence is holding girls back from achieving their full potential. Our Free Being Me programme’s fun, research-based activities raise girls’ body confidence and enable them to make an impact on their wider community by speaking out against beauty standards and raising awareness of their harmful effect.

“Dove has been an incredible long-term partner and it is testament to their work and that of the WAGGGS Free Being Me team that we have received this award. It is incredible to witness how the programme has transformed the lives of millions of girls and young women across the globe, empowering them to build their body confidence and self-esteem to reach their full potential” - Anna Segall, Chief Executive of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

This year is an incredible milestone for the Free Being Me programme which has for 10 years empowered young people through improving body-confidence and self-esteem. In 2020, we successfully completed the second phase of FBM and following its completion, 85% of girls reported feeling better about themselves and their bodies.

We are now in the third phase of the programme and to date have reached over 6.5 million young people worldwide with life changing body confidence and self-esteem education, and advocacy, and aim to reach an additional 3 million by 2026.

Read more about the FBM programme and the unique partnership between Dove and WAGGGS on the Free Being Me website.

Better Society Award 2

The WAGGGS and Dove team accepts the Highly Commended Award at a celebratory event in London on May 11, 2023.

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The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) is the largest voluntary Movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world. Our diverse Movement represents 8.9 million girls and young women from 152 countries.

Our strengths lie in innovative non-formal education programmes, leadership development, advocacy and community action, empowering girls and young women to develop the skills and confidence needed to make positive changes in their lives, in their communities and countries.

www.wagggs.org

The Dove Self-Esteem Project was created from a vision where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. For more than 15 years, we’ve been helping parents, mentors, teachers and youth leaders deliver self-esteem education around the world. So far, we’ve reached over 60 million young people in 142 countries through our educational programmes.

Our mission is to ensure that young people grow up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look. That’s why we’re helping them raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential.

www.dove.com

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