tell this to people that’s always
greeted with a bit of hoo exciting
exotic who even MANET areum tell me
about that and there’s always an image
that’s associated with as well and over
time I’m starting to understand that
it’s associated for about three images
so the first is this James bond-esque
type of person has the suit the
sunglasses going to London Tokyo and one
of the big audiences saying we need to
save the world with that voice included
and that has nothing to do with what my
everyday looks like and then there’s the
more dramatic scene which is somehow I’m
in a war-torn village I have a baby on
her shoulder here I have a vaccine
another hand I have to get to the
hospital because the hospital says save
the baby with this vaccine and once they
know about this vaccine they’re gonna
save the world with this and I’m gonna
save humanity and I’m gonna get a Nobel
Peace Prize and while that’s the case
for some humanitarians you have not seen
me run so that’s definitely not how my
everyday looks like then there’s the
more common scene that people give they
think of me being in sub-saharan Africa
Suns beaming on my face I’m in a Jeep
I’m giving rice packets to the villagers
they’re smiling I’m waving and I’m
saying yes I’m saving Africa and I’m
saving the world that sentence that
scene wrong nothing to do with
humanitarianism absolutely not but what
I can definitely say about being
humanitarian is that it has been an
amazing riding a journey I mean I have
done things I have would have never
vision that I would have done before not
even once I mean I’ve gone to place that
ten years ago I would have laughed at if
you told me I did it I’ve had the
wonderful opportunity of sitting with
government officials Minister of Health
key stakeholders and country’s people
with opinions I can make and break any
project I try to propose and we sit down
a part of the table and we’ll talk about
things we have a comment with me it’s
always about food and then we’ll talk
about the important stuff that matters
things that really count and for me it
happens to be about women’s health from
women’s rights
I’ve had the honor the opportunity of
shaking hands and meeting of graça
Machel Mandela Nelson Mandela’s wife
being with her in the same room with key
stakeholders countless of them as I
represented my organization in
developing the draft strategic framework
for the sustainable developing goals for
the post-2015 agenda that was last year
I’ve been to countries that I would have
never thought it would be texting my
mother right before I was about to board
the plane or telling friends right in
front of coffee I’ve managed programs in
Sudan Ethiopia Ghana if you have
stakeholders in Somaliland doctors in
Myanmar I was even a young women rep
from women’s economic empowerment and
launched a campaign with them which had
a bunch of supporting and of course when
I tell it to people they just look at me
up and down and go wait how old are you
hold on a second because no I have
colleagues that tell me I’m a took them
20 30 years just to sit down a part of a
prime minister yeah I can just glide
through like it’s nothing
how and it’s true I don’t have the
background that groomed me to do
humanitarianism or diplomacy and that
sort I mean ladies and gentlemen I’m
from the Bronx in New York and if you
know about the bronze it’s rough and
tough it’s not it’s not we’re
humanitarians and diplomats and what not
come from I’m an Italian Dominican boy
from the Bronx yet somehow this boy
manages to walk into these rooms where
the UN is present how and you know what
yes I’m young and like a lot of young
people I have role models people who
inspire me people whose essence make me
smile and say wow I am inspired by you
this I think about you that’s just a
fire so I want to introduce you to my
role models people who have inspired me
and have actually helped me progress the
path I’ve been to and the first one is
sanju sanju ver de Melo now sir Joe if
you look up diplomat in the dictionary I
mean his face will come up the best way
I can describe him to you is if I put
you in a confined room and sprayed
amazing perfume and as that perfume
comes down you can happen say oh my god
it’s amazing that is Sir Joe I mean look
at him he’s a diplomat he’s throwing
balls I mean a Sergio was a life force
he was friends with political despots
and peacemakers because it is you
believe that doesn’t matter who you are
it doesn’t matter what’s going on and it
doesn’t matter if I think I know
everything I need to sit down listen
understand because it’s by understanding
you I can be able to define a solution
he believed that we all had something
called chasing the claim it’s up to us
to chase this blame which will help us
help this world
unfortunately for surger his flame was
put out in 2002 when he was killed in a
dock but his life
his smile his essence always inspires me
there’s something about him that always
makes me think well but Serge you do and
so he is most definitely helped me now
the next person I guarantee you everyone
will know this person this person was a
legend this person’s name has continued
beyond their death and you will all have
your own image of this person but this
probably was the biggest influence in my
life then Sergio that person’s Coco
Chanel
and see there’s some faces in the
audience they’re looking back at me and
it’s like you know it’s a bit like
you’re talking lalalalala and it’s like
a car crashed wait a minute pulled up
Coco Chanel and for some of you this may
be the first time you realized that she
was actually a real person yes lady and
gentlemen Coco Chanel was real and when
I tell it to people they look at this
Coco Chanel won’t fash humanitarianism
they look at me up and down and say okay
well you got that stylish thing going on
okay maybe that’s what it is and I said
no I’m Italian it’s got spread south
ouram know like well that she means
makeup and then there’s the more common
one yeah but she’s a woman Coco Chanel’s
a woman and that’s where we have a
problem
you see they cannot look beyond her
story they can’t look beyond what she’s
done and they just block it off a woman
and they can’t see how about next to me
well how does this make sense she’s a
woman and it’s not just her story but
it’s countless women won’t look out in
history because she’s a woman they won’t
look at her story and this countless men
that admire these women but they’re too
afraid to say it because afraid of the
lapse and the looks like I just leap
today that’s why it is time that men
confess to having female role models
because we will never ever have gender
equality or sustainable peace in this
world if we do not look at women as
being equal in men in value and what
they can offer and honoring it I mean
that’s be quite honest ladies and
gentlemen there’s no better way of
gender equality and for a man –this
safe she’s my role model I mean that is
what’s up she is it there’s no way of
saying it and that’s the best way to
happen jury quality not sin I mean I
live in the UK and recently in England
there was this fantastic advert that was
going on and it was this little girl
beautiful curly hair going on top of the
sofa got her iPad out but plain Alicia
Keys girl on fire and she’s playing that
YouTube video she sees it’s amazing
women Eleanor Roosevelt
you know politicians
athletes the whole shebang and she’s
looking back as she says wow these
ladies they’re they’re women like me I
can be just like them and you know what
that’s beautiful
god bless when you need this but take
three seconds to think it was instead it
was a little boy to climb onto that sofa
play that YouTube clip having Leisha
keys in the background because lord
knows I love Alicia Keys I am looking
back at those women and saying wow these
women are amazing I want to be like
these women one day that’s what we need
and you know we do have men that say
well I have a female role model my
mother’s my role model my grandma is my
role model my cousin twice removed is my
role model that’s fine I mean I would be
nothing about my grandmother my mother
and my great for our mother they are my
essence just as my father is but I feel
society kind of expects you to have a
feet no role models from your family no
no I want to hear a man declare that a
woman unrelated to him inspires him
gives him the flame I want to hear
amanda says christine lagarde is my role
model Oprah Winfrey that is somebody I
admire Egyptian music legend oom C’thun
is my music inspiration I want to hear
this and why because why not there’s no
reason not to
I mean Coco Chanel inspires me because
she taught me to really believe in your
true potential I mean let’s get it
simple Coco Chanel’s life wasn’t
diamonds roses and champagne although
she has now provided the illusion for
that no she was born in the center of
France her mother died when she was very
young her father told her to her face I
don’t love you and I don’t want you I
never did dropped her off at an
orphanage raised there until she was 18
and the nun said okay that’s enough
girlfriend for the world everybody told
her lovers friends give it up you’re a
woman give it up there’s nothing give it
up but she said no there’s more to me in
life there’s more and she said I want to
do fashion and this is the early 20th
century so if you remember Titanic big
hats the frills the whole shebang she
that’s two pounds of my head that’s not
gonna work so cut that into a small hats
instead actually were these little hat
she began with that and we go where
clients will potentially be so she will
go to charity races she’d go to galas
that people could say hey where’d you
get that hat she’s oh she Coco Chanel in
Paris when she said that she had no she
Coco should own power she was looking
off a flood that she couldn’t even
afford but that’s not the point
she had a phrase fake it until you make
it because even if it hasn’t happened
yet the key word is yet it hasn’t
happened yet because as long as you see
it in your mind that’s all that counts
because you’re going to be there you
know your truth you know your essence
that’s what matters and Coco Chanel
inspires me in that that somehow a
little boy for the bronze can look in
stuff in the mirror and build up courage
right I have to meet this prime minister
I have to meet this key person in the UN
but I know where I want to go in the
world so let me be confident and shine
so I can help others that’s how Coco
Chanel has helped me and you know it’s
liberating to be quite honest when you
say that a woman is your role model as a
man oh my goodness like go on it’s just
liberating it as if nothing’s holding me
back and we need to have this more for
men so I think men have a lot more
layers on top of them that societies
pudding there’s a fantastic documentary
called the mask I live in which talks
about masks even perceptions in United
States my native country and it’s true
in America if you’re associated of
anything feminine considered a weak
this means skincare playing the flute
the violin speaking of the language is
pushing the arts being flamboyant as I
am as you can obviously tell
they just that’s a week but you know we
need to just remove that when a man says
she gives my robotic you’re simply
moving all that society’s pointing on
him all that lud and allowing us to see
the beauty of that person’s essence that
man’s essence instead of this be a man
figure no I want to see you that allows
him to liberate themselves and let me
tell you what’s not easy telling people
like Coco Chanel’s my role model I was
afraid that people would disrespect me
think I’m was weird everything but as
long as I didn’t care anymore I said
well what am I gonna lose I have a
hundred years of life I start to see men
approach we said you know what actually
think engineer at least pretty cool
actually I really do like that woman too
so we need to liberate them and you know
what as well a man that says a woman is
my role model is demonstrating
confidence in himself confidence that it
not going to let race gender religion
shoes anything blocking me from seeing
the value of that person no I see that
person for who they are
not because it’s a woman I see their
essence I see that is conference that’s
masculinity and that’s what we should be
promoting I walk into a Coco Chanel
store some time to time and it confuses
the craziness out of the the people who
work there because they don’t sell men’s
clothes they say can I help you and I
said I’m just looking and they’re
confused but I go in there because
answering a Coco Chanel boutique is a
testament of what dreams can become that
a little girl who was told by her father
I don’t love you told by everyone you’re
worthless told them you’ll never make it
told them all know I did it that her
name is synonymous with her country her
countrymen who rejected her at a points
not even to this day she died in 1971 we
are talking about her she reminds me
that as long as you believe in yourself
in your mind you will achieve it and
that this little boy from the Bronx can
becoming monetary in one day that’s a
lot bigger I mean I’ve done so much so
far
but I believe I can do more because I
want to help I want to keep helping
others because I have that flame and it
can be daunting sometimes it could be
terrifying but as long as I believe in
myself to achieve it anything is
possible and if ever I doubt I think of
Chanel so I challenge men confess to
having a female role model confess you
have nothing to hide and who cares if
they judge in laugh at you after the
shoes who cares
every time so there’s always a shoe
thing going who cares and women
encourage men encourage your sons your
husband’s your friends to have a female
role model they don’t have one yet or to
admit to it there’s no reason not to
there are great women in this world
sources of strength let’s be proud of it
I mean age and gentlemen I’m just went
on your buyers I’m from the Bronx sir
jevetta Duhamel was my role model and he
will live in our hearts forever for the
work he’s done and my role models also
Coco Chanel fashion legend icon but a
powerful woman and she inspires me who’s
yours thank you [Applause]