International Development minister Lynne Featherstone is currently visiting Zambia and blogging her trip for the Huffington Post. In her first post she writes:
My first visit since arriving in Zambia was to a UK aid adolescent girls empowerment programme in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital, Lusaka. This initiative is supporting more than 1,500 of the most vulnerable girls, providing safe spaces and mentoring to help build their confidence and life skills.
The girls I met told me they were learning about their rights as women. One 16-year-old girl said she now felt more confident to say no to unwanted approaches from boys. Another said the girls now understood that if a spouse or boyfriend attacked his partner, she had the right to go to the police. This is a much-needed message in a country where 63% of women aged 15-24 report wife-beating to be justified under certain conditions.
Read the rest of Lynne Featherstone’s account here.
* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
David Hemmings film of David Bowie concert tour to be seen at last
How slowness at the Treasury cost taxpayers millions
Ianto's shrine to be saved
Walkabout
Mark
theakes
PM
expats
Slamdac
One Comment
This is an excellent initiative, but one could equally ask, what exactly, we as a Party are doing to protect women and girls from domestic violence here in the UK, given the reality that funding has been slashed across the country, and refuge’s have been closed, or at least had to reduce their services?