By Muhumuza Brian
At 1 West Hollywood California on 6th March 2023, 9 young leaders honored and made their debut into Hollywood at the 2024 Green Carpet Fashion Awards (GCFA) citing their environmental sustainability efforts. Renowned Ugandan born fashion model and environmentalist Judith Heard (the most outstanding) made entry in the evening clad in a dress by Ugandan designer Abbasi Kaijuka of Kai’s Divo Collection.
The awards continue to champion intersectional positive change makers across the globe, for their inspirational activism, an understanding and interplay between environmental action, civil rights, equality, global feminism and building a better collective future.
In this way, a giant megaphone is created and focuses attention on leaders, champions their work, and calls for a more holistic approach to help us meet the world’s most pressing challenges.
What made Judith a big deal is her wardrobe. The dress, crafted entirely from recycled materials like net, Kikoyi and kitengi showcased urgent needed effort in repurposing materials by other fashion designers as explained by Judith stylist from Kai’s Divo Collection. Judith’s slender body transformed this recycled creation into a sizeable classy and elegant vava-voom piece.
A day before, Eco-Age the organizers and their chair lady Livia Firth held the GCFA Sharing the Table cocktail at Juniper Gardens on March 5, 2024 to welcome these global change icons where Judith Heard took to stage to pass her call-to-action messages to fashion designers to embrace the virtue of recycling and understanding the interplay between environmental action, civil rights, equality, global feminism and building a better collective future.
She further enlightened that she is looking to work with the government, NGOs and the generic civil society to ensure the planted trees under her ‘50 Million Trees for Africa’ campaign are taken care of and monitored till maturity.
She added, “Our commitment extends far beyond the act of planting. In the initial stages post-planting, our focus is on providing immediate care to ensure the trees’ survival. This includes activities such as mulching, watering, and protection from pests and diseases. We take continuous and collaborative effort to ensure the health and longevity of the trees through pruning, weeding, and pest control. We’ve implemented robust monitoring systems to regularly assess the health and progress of the planted trees. Through field visits, surveys, and data collection, we track survival rates, growth patterns, and any potential challenges. This real-time monitoring allows us to identify issues promptly and implement targeted interventions. Through workshops and training sessions, we empower community members to take an active role in nurturing the planted trees.”
Judith’s message appealed to the United Nations, heads of governments, leaders, international organizations, civil society activists and the general public to join her afforestation movement —envisioning a greener world by 2050, commencing in Africa. Committed to sustainable practices, Judith recently unveiled a eco-friendly bead bag collection crafted by local women’s groups in Uganda.
Donatella Versace, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Bobi Wine, Annie Lennox, Alberto Candiani, Gabriela Giovanardi, Amber Valletta and more celebrities attended the Awards. The event, which celebrates individuals and organizations for their work on social and environmental justice, was co-chaired by Helen Hunt, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Zendaya
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
