11 Days of Global Unity Women
Hassina Sherjan
Gemma Bulos
Gemma Bulos is an multi-award winning social entrepreneur, singer and storyteller. As a pre-school teacher who was not on her regular 8:50am train to the World Trade Center on September 11, Gemma Bulos, witnessed a global community united through tragedy. In response, she wrote “WE RISE”, a rousing anthem that celebrates water as a metaphor for peace and unity in action. She left her life, gave away all her belongings and with her meager savings began traveling around the world to launch the unprecedented Million Voice Choir where groups sing “WE RISE” on September 21, in celebration of the UN International Day of Peace and Global Cease Fire Day. This was the “single drop” that has rippled into the evolution of her current award-winning humanitarian mission that has helped bring clean water to over 200,000 people in the Philippines and 9 countries in Africa.
Gemma currently is the director and co-creator of the Global Women’s Water Initiative, a joint program of Women’s Earth Alliance and Crabgrass. GWWI provides African women the opportunity to gain the skills, technologies, best practices, and support networks they need to launch sustainable water and sanitation projects in their communities. Since its inception, GWWI has supported women’s water projects in nine countries in Africa. But prior to leading GWWI, she founded of A Single Drop for Safe Water, an award-winning social entrepreneurial organization in the Philippines.