Education is the key to unlocking the potential of girls – it opens up infinite possibilities and can inspire positive contributions to the global community. However, many young girls around the world are denied the opportunity to advance to secondary school due to barriers such as early marriage, poverty, discrimination and gender bias. Access to STEM education can help combat these barriers and enable girls to claim the future that they choose.
The power to light up the world is within every individual, and through the ‘Power of Radiance Awards’, Clé de Peau Beauté is standing with girls and women globally as they transform the world for themselves, their families and their communities.
Clé de Peau Beauté, the luxury skincare and makeup brand, announced the third ‘Power of Radiance Awards’ which are a part of their long-term philanthropic commitment to advocate for girls’ STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education as a key for empowering a brighter tomorrow. In the past year, due to COVID-19, Education has been disrupted.
Clé de Peau Beauté’s long-term philanthropic commitment includes the ‘Power of Radiance Awards’ and a multi- year partnership with UNICEF to support the Gender Equality Program. The 2021 ‘Power of Radiance Awards’ will honor Alyona Tkachenko from Kazakhstan, who has made incredible contributions advocating for and providing access to quality STEM education for girls and young women in her country. Through this program, Clé de Peau Beauté aims to empower girls and women to take a proactive stance in igniting a positive difference to the world.
Unfortunately, access to opportunities often depend on individual’s socio-economic, social, and community backgrounds. However, increasing the advancement of girls and women in STEM fields can help equip them with the skills to secure higher earning jobs of the future and in turn spur socio-economic advancement for their communities.
“Since March 2019, Clé de Peau Beauté celebrates women who have taken action to drive positive change in their communities through education and empowerment with the Power of Radiance Awards. This is the third year that we have had the privilege to recognize such exceptional women, and I am honored to celebrate this year’s awardee, Ms. Alyona Tkachenko. Her advocacy for STEM education to be incorporated into the curriculum in Kazakhstan has touched over 500,000 girls. Her achievements are testament to our belief that each person has the power to transform not only the world for herself, but also for those around her,” said Ms. Yukari Suzuki, Chief Brand Officer of Clé de Peau Beauté.
Alyona Tkachenko is the initiator of the Hour of Code in Kazakhstan, bringing the program to her country in 2014 to inspire students to learn programming, especially young girls.
Alyona has pushed to make Hour of Code accessible to girls in both urban and rural environments by working with the national and regional government to roll the program out in schools across Kazakhstan. Outside of her educational work, Alyona has tapped into her own STEM background to co-found Nommi, a Kazakhstan-run mobile hotspot startup. Lack of connectivity can worsen education gaps, Nommi was founded to solve this problem by providing internet everywhere, especially in rural areas. Alyona strongly believes that STEM is a crucial tool for innovation and wants to encourage other young women to pursue it as a field of study.
“Being involved in STEM and learning different sides of computer science has opened many doors and enabled me
to grasp exciting opportunities that have come my way. Through my work and advocacy, I hope to give young people
a clearer understanding of the possibilities that STEM education can provide. My dream is to help provide the tools for young girls to make the most of their potential and not accept the limits imposed on them, no matter their background. Receiving the Power of Radiance Award will help me transform Hour of Code Kazakhstan and ultimately ensure more equal representation of girls in STEM” said Ms. Tkachenko.
As the 2021 recipient of the ‘Power of Radiance Award’, Alyona will be awarded a grant that can be donated to a cause of her choosing to further her impactful work in STEM.
The ‘Power of Radiance Awards’ are funded by a percentage of global sales of Clé de Peau Beauté’s The Serum. Designed to awaken Skin Intelligence – skin’s ability to distinguish between good and bad stimuli, The Serum also activates the source of vitality and radiance. Clé de Peau Beauté’s journey as advocates for education began with a dream for a better world. This is why they selected one of their most iconic first-step products, The Serum, and pledged a share of its sales towards this mission.