First Lady Margaret Kenyatta held extensive talks with Princess Mabel Van Oranje of Netherlands Wednesday, where they discussed collaboration between the Princess’s ‘Girls Not Brides’ global partnership and Beyond Zero initiative.
The First Lady 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.”
During the first meeting with Princess Mabel, the two leaders focused on reproductive health including child bride marriages, early pregnancies, gender violence, HIV/AIDS and how these issues affect the education and development of the girl child.
The First Lady 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 mandate of Beyond Zero was initially focused on HIV/AIDS control and the promotion of maternal, new born and child health. With time and the delivery of 47 mobile clinics to all the 47 counties, this mandate has expanded to cover a wider spectrum of health services.
Princess Mabel said there were many similarities between the work of Beyond Zero and her ‘Girls Not Brides’ Partnership, hence the need for closer collaboration.
‘Girls Not Brides’ is a global partnership of more than 1000 civil society organisations from over 97 countries committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential.