Yesterday over 100 women gathered for an intimate lunch at New York’s 3 West Club to support the Voss Foundation’s Women Helping Women campaign. Women Helping Women, an international fundraising effort of the Voss Foundation, funds water projects and well development within villages in Sub-Saharan Africa. This fundraiser, in conjunction with Voss Foundation’s European Women Helping Women campaign, funded a water system for the village of Ndonyo Nasipa in Kenya, and a well at the Georges Malaika School for Girls in Kalebuka, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Photos of the event can be found here or at PatrickMcMullan.com.

At the luncheon, the Voss Foundation honored Noella Coursaris Musunka, renowned international fashion model and founder of the Georges Malaika Foundation, for her devotion to the concept of Women Helping Women.

Attendees and supporters, including Khaliah Ali, Marybeth Belsito, Paige Bluhdorn, European Representative Cecilie Malm Brundtland, MacDella Cooper, Abigail Disney, Executive Director Kara Gerson, Kim Heirston Evans, Kristin Holth, Ambassador Ritva Jolkkonen, Saran Kaba Jones, Belinda Kielland, Lauren Koppel, European Representative Anette Krosby, Trecia Laird, Kate Mahon, Charlot Malin, Inger Tallaksen, Sophie Ann Terisse, Vibeke Steineger, and Stephanie Voquer, helped to raise an impressive sum in the event’s inaugural year. Guests also partook in a silent auction of limited-edition photographs by Magnum Photos photographer Stuart Franklin, famed for his image of the student protest at Tiananmen Square.

Thanks to the support of sponsors like VOSS water, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Remy-Cointreau, and Brass Ring Ltd., the Voss Foundation was able to direct 100% of tickets sales to the water projects.

Forty billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa. When removed from the water delivery cycle, women have the opportunity to fully participate in local economies and girls have the change to attend school and contribute to their communities’ economy.

With offices in New York and Oslo, and projects underway in Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Voss Foundation has managed to complete 18 water access points since its inception in 2008.

For more information, please contact info@thevossfoundation.org