Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta held extensive talks with Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau of Netherlands during her meeting with Princess Mabel where the two leaders focused their discussion on wide range of issues including child bride marriages, early pregnancies, gender violence, HIV/AIDS and how these issues affect the education and development of the girl child.
Princess Mabel during the meeting proposed a global movement of all organizations working for women and the girl child to bring the issues affecting them to the global attention. “Let’s create a strong global movement and through collaboration with change makers mobilize resources and compare lessons in various countries”.
Their discussion was also circled on the collaboration between the Princess’s ‘Girls Not Brides’ global partnership and Beyond Zero initiative.
The First Lady in another session also held separate talks with Prince Harry and Sir Elton John at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, where the Duke of Sussex and the rock music icon launched a $1.2 billion initiative – the MenStar Coalition – to fight AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa. The first project on the coalition’s list will be to encourage young men in Kenya for self-testing in the campaign dubbed “Chukua Selfie.”
Margret Kenyatta used a short video-clip to demonstrate the successes of the five-year Beyond Zero drive and how the initiative delivers varied health services to millions of Kenyans in hard to reach parts of the country, using fully kitted mobile clinics as enablers.
The Dutch Princess talked glowingly about Kenya’s practical approach to health issues and proposed that the country should be the launch-pad for the global movement. “Kenya is known for its practical approaches to many issues. Kenya should be the exemplary case for the global movement”, a proposal the First Lady described as a fantastic idea.
By Emekpo Charles.
