On day seven of the Sussexes’ royal tour of southern Africa, Prince Harry paid a visit Nalikule College of Education in Lilongwe, Malawi where he met with a group of women who had attended the school through the help of Campaign For Female Education (CAMFED), an organisation which aims to tackle poverty and inequality by supporting girls to go to school and succeed.
The alumni network is known as CAMA, and with support from the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, of which Prince Harry is president and Meghan is vice-president, the positive female role models, leaders and entrepreneurs are working to life communities out of poverty.
As @sussexroyal explained in a post, money distributed by CAMA goes directly to each of their alumni, who then use their own resources to support another three children to attend school.
Harry, who has been travelling between South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Malawi over the past few days, saw first-hand the significant impact UK investments were helping to ensure girls were able to obtain at least 12 years of quality education.
And while Duchess Meghan wasn’t able to be there in person – she had remained in South Africa with four-month-old Archie – that didn’t stop her from saying hello, joining her husband via Skype, in what Hello! reports as a royal first.
Ahead of the surprise appearance Hello! reports Harry introduced his wife saying, “I know there’s somebody else you’d rather hear from than me, hopefully if technology doesn’t fail us you may see somebody on the screen,” before Meghan’s face popped up on a TV screen.
“I’m so happy to be with you, is there a delay?” Meghan asked, to which Harry replied: “No, it’s great, keep going.”
Meghan made a surprise appearance – via Skype – during Harry’s visit to a school in Malawi. (Image: Getty)
It’s understandable that Meghan was eager to be involved in any way she could, as she is incredibly passionate and vocal about gender equality and women’s rights.
Throughout the 10-day tour of South Africa, Meghan’s solo engagements have focused largely on meeting with organisations and women who are working to promote women and girls’ health and education, entrepreneurship and leadership and to taking stand against gender based violence.
Following a private engagement with a group of change-making women on Thursday Meghan shared a post on Instagram with a lengthy caption, where she explained she had convened a “meeting of minds”, which included a legendary anti-apartheid to discuss the rights of women in South Africa.
“In the lead up to this tour it weighed heavily on my heart to see the countless violations against women, and I wanted to spend time on the ground learning about the situation at hand,” Meghan wrote.
She adds, “Issues of gender inequality affect women throughout the world, independent of race, colour, creed or socioeconomic background. In the last week I’ve met with women from all walks of life – religious leaders such as the first female rabbi in Cape Town, grassroots leaders in Nyanga at Mbokodo, community activists, parliamentarians, and so many more.
“In sitting down with these forward thinkers, it was abundantly clear – it is not enough to simply hope for a better future the only way forward is “hope in action.” I’m eager to spend the next few days in South Africa continuing to learn, listen and absorb the resilience and optimism I’ve felt here.”
Earlier in the week Meghan visited mothers2mothers in Cape Town, a charity which trains and employs women living with HIV as frontline health workers. (Image: Getty)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are approaching the tail-end of their 10-day royal tour which has seen them undertake both solo and joint engagements touching on causes that they passionately advocate for.
While Meghan has remained in South Africa – with adorable four-month-old Archie – for the entirety of the tour, Harry has travelled to the nearby countries of Botswana, Angola and Malawi.
He’s set to re-join his family in Johannesburg, South Africa for the conclusion of the tour, with the family set to fly out of South Africa on Wednesday, October 2nd.
