with Buch as president and she served as its general-secretary from 1972 to 1996. The Elders: 2007–2022 On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Kofi Annan served as Chair of The Elders and Gro Harlem Brundtland as Deputy Chair. The Elders work globally, on thematic as well as geographically specific subjects. The Elders' priority issue areas include the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Korean Peninsula, Sudan and South Sudan, sustainable development, and equality for girls and women. Bhatt was particularly involved in The Elders' initiative on equality for women and girls, including on the issue of child marriage. In February 2012, Bhatt travelled to Bihar, India with fellow Elders Desmond Tutu, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson. Together, the Elders visited Jagriti, a youth-led project aimed at preventing child marriage, and encouraged the state government's efforts to tackle the issue. A Gandhian practitioner of non-violence, Bhatt also travelled to the Middle East with Elders delegations in August 2009 and October 2010. In a blog post written for The Elders' website following the group's visit to Gaza in October 2010, Bhatt stated that non-violent struggle against injustice requires "more hard work than fighting" and that "it is the coward who uses weapons." The Elders are independently funded by such donors as Sir Richard Branson and Jean Oelwang (Virgin Unite), Peter Gabriel (The Peter Gabriel Foundation), Kathy Bushkin Calvin (United Nations Foundation), Jeremy Coller and Lulit Solomon (J. Coller Foundation), Niclas Kjellström-Matseke (Swedish Postcode Lottery), Jeff Skoll and Sally Osberg (Skoll Foundation), and Marieke van Schaik (Dutch Postcode Lottery), among others. Mabel van Oranje, former CEO of The Elders, sits on the Advisory Council in her capacity as Advisory Committee Chair of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. Personal life Ela Bhatt married Ramesh Bhatt in 1956, with whom she had two children, Amimayi (b. 1958) and Mihir (b. 1959). She lived in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with her family. She died on 2 November 2022, at the age of 89. Awards and recognition Bhatt was one of the founders of Women's World Banking in 1979 with Esther Ocloo and