Meghan Markle wants to 'focus on helping women in developing countries'
Meghan Markle is keen to ‘focus on women in the developing world’ when she announces her first patronages as a royal in the new year, Mail Online reports.
The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly been having secret meetings with a number of organisations, including CAMFED – the Campaign for Female Education – which aims to to eradicate poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women.
Zambia is one of the countries where the charity works and during his solo visit to the nation, Prince Harry met with members of CAMA, the alumnae network of CAMFED.
CEO Lucy Lake told Mail Online that she had met with Meghan privately earlier this year.
She said: “We had the opportunity to meet with the Duchess in the spring. As an organisation our team very much represents what we are working towards and that was why the Duchess was interested to meet with us and hear more about that.
“The way both she and her husband have spoken about these issues in such a thoughtful and discerning manner has really helped the wider movement. It’s exciting times.
“We have been working for 25 years supporting girls through education and enabling those young women to make the transition in their communities into positions of leadership, to turn around and support the next generation.
“It’s wonderful that the Royal Family is engaging with the issue in this way. For the young people in Zambia to feel that Prince Harry was on a level with them and genuinely interested in what they are doing, left them very inspired and motivated, as was he. That’s a very powerful force.”
After their royal tour of Australia, Harry and Meghan are also continuing their work as Commonwealth Youth ambassadors.
Meghan became involved in humanitarian work while she was acting in US legal drama Suits. She was a Global Ambassador for World Vision, the world’s largest international children’s charity, from 2016 – 2017. She travelled to Rwanda in early 2016 with World Vision to see first-hand the importance of clean water.
She also travelled to India and met with women and girls living in slum communities to learn about the issues affecting them, in particular, the stigma around menstrual health. Meghan later wrote about the issue in Time magazine.
Five months after her wedding, she announced her first solo project, supporting a charity community cookbook written by the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen, whose area has been affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
It’s reported that aides hope the Duchess will be able to announce her first patronages in the new year, ahead of the birth of her first child in spring.
Last night, Harry and Meghan attended a Christmas service held by the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund.
Henry, who was a good friend of both Prince William and Harry, passed away in a car accident 16 years ago in 2002.
In remembrance of their friend, the royal brothers both act as patrons of the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, which aims to fight poverty in Uganda through the means of education.
During the service Harry gave a speech and Meghan read Marianne Williamson’s poem Our Deepest Fear.
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