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Tendai Rupapa
Senior Reporter
JORDANIAN Princess, Her Royal Highness Sarah Zeid, yesterday paid a courtesy call on First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa during which issues affecting women and children came under the spotlight.

Princess Sarah works with humanitarian organisations supporting their efforts to reduce maternal, child and new-born mortality and morbidity and champions the health, well-being, empowerment and contribution of women and girls in humanitarian settings.

The Princess was accompanied by a World Food Programme (WFP) delegation, including its country director to Zimbabwe, Ms Francesca Erdelmann.

After her meeting with the First Lady, a jovial Princess Sarah remarked: “I have just had an excellent meeting with the First Lady and we shared our passions and commitment to girls, women, new-borns and children who are the centres of families’ well-being, communities well-being and ultimately the prosperity of the nation and there are so many areas where that work is at the heart of the World Food Programme and the ambition of the First Lady overlap.

“Information can be shared so that we can complement each other and ultimately improve the health and well-being of the population of Zimbabwe.”

Princess Sarah is a global health advocate whose work focuses on maternal and new-borns’ health.

Her work dovetails with what Amai Mnangagwa is doing, including spreading awareness on diseases that affect women like breast and cervical cancer, establishment of mothers’ shelter for expecting mothers aimed at ending cases of risky home child deliveries.

In yesterday’s meeting, deliberations centred on key aspects that can be undertaken to improve the well-being of girls and women.

The First Lady, who is the country’s health ambassador, narrated milestones achieved in transforming the lives of vulnerable women and girls in rural communities working through the Angel of Hope Foundation.

Initiatives such as the schools feeding programme, which the First Lady is undertaking countrywide were also highlighted during the meeting, with agreement from the WFP country representative that such programmes were key to improving performance rates in schools.

Princess Sarah is the founder of Every Woman Every Child Everywhere, a global multi-stakeholder movement to integrate humanitarian and fragile settings in the renewed global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, a roadmap adopted by the World Health assembly to end all preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030.

Angel of Hope Foundation board chairperson Mrs Molly Dingane, members Mrs Rachel Nield-Geranios and Mrs Chipo Mtasa also attended the meeting.