I was in an event two nights ago and I heard a former senior employee at Apple use the term “radical collaboration”. It was the first time I heard this and I couldn’t help to connect it immediately to the making of the “Girl Rise-a-thon”

In summer of 2013 I got the opportunity to attend the Women Deliver Conference in Kuala Lumpur, representing Panama as one of the 100 young leaders working towards women empowerment. While seating in a panel led by leaders of the CSR departments of big well-known corporations I stood up and asked — “How can young social entrepreneurs like myself, working at the grassroots level, get attention and funding from you”- they answered — “Get a lot of you together and COLLABORATE to do something amazing that catches our attention”.

I’ve always thought of myself as a philosopher king — Plato’s famous character in the Allegory of the cave — the one that had the chance to leave the cave and comes back to share with those inside new opportunities for them to get out themselves. With this thought in the back of my head and now based in San Francisco — mecca of innovation and interconnectedness — a desire to connect all the amazing networks I’ve made here with all the extraordinary women I know around the world stumbled upon my head and became what I have named the Girl Rise-a-thon.

The Girl Rise-a-thon is a marathon of Girl Rising screenings happening on March 7-8th — for International Women’s Day — in 12 countries, led by 12 women entrepreneurs and featuring the work of 12 grassroots organizations working for women’s empowerment. In 12 hours, people will be able to join a physical screening in one of the 12 countries OR the best part, engage ONLINE by buying the movie; watching it at home; and then joining us on our Google Plus page by live streaming the conversations happening every hour!

In only one month in between the idea and March 7th, the Girl Rise-a-thon grew from a dream to a network of over 60 people, in 21 cities involved with more than 43 organizations helping with the execution of this event.

What is even more RADICAL, is that in between all of us, we have almost every sector represented. We go from the globally known non-profits like 3 UN Women and UN Volunteers; corporations like Intel and Google; innovation platforms like Impact HUB and Causes; to global networks like Girls in Tech, Atlas Corps and Women Deliver; to the local governments like the Secretaria de Cultura in Colombia and some Ministries in Haiti; to the local activist like all the 12 women hosting the screenings and finally the local grassroots organizations working in the field with the beneficiaries — who by the way- will ALSO join the physical screenings.

In essence, the Girl Rise-a-thon is proving to be a great example of collective impact — that is yet to be measured after the event.

Don’t miss out in this great movement that hasn’t even reached its full potential — Be Radical and JOIN the Girl Rise-a-thon.

Learn more about the locations of the screenings and the people behind this in our social media:

Like us onFb: http://bit.ly/GRFBevent

Join the G+ LIVE Hangouts: http://bit.ly/GRGoogleplus

Meet the Radical Girls behind this at Causes: https://www.causes.com/iwd2014

Join the conversation NOW — @girlriseathon #girlriseathon #IWD2014