Lotus Leadership Awards: Nani Zulminarni

Each year, The Asia Foundation’s Lotus Circle hosts an event in New York City to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations that have made major contributions to the wellbeing of women and society in Asia. Proceeds from the event are used to fund cutting-edge projects to empower disadvantaged women and girls in 18 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. In 2014, the Lotus Leadership Awards hosted a gala dinner event for the first time ever. This special event celebrated 60 years of The Asia Foundation’s leadership to improve lives and opportunities throughout Asia, as well as the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Program. The event honored Prof. Muhammad Yunus for his Nobel Prize-winning vision to give small loans to poor women to lift themselves out of poverty, Nani Zulminarni, founder of Women-Headed Household Empowerment in Indonesia, for helping more than 10,000 women heads of household in 19 provinces, and Estée Lauder Companies for its partnership with the Foundation to help young girls in Vietnam to continue their secondary school education.