Meghan Markle did charity work in India before wedding
A charity the Duchess of Sussex worked with before she got married to Prince Harry has released new video of Meghan in India. Meghan’s travels with World Vision to Rwanda in 2016 have been well documented, but the charity today released more images of the duchess on a humanitarian visit to Delhi and Mumbai in January 2017 – shortly after her romance with Harry had become public.
The video has not been published before.
The duchess’ focus on that visit, as it is today, was on gender equality – particularly on the problems of girls’ access to education. More in 110 million teenage girls in India – the second most populated country in the world – are at risk of dropping out of school.
The duchess was filmed planting flowers and painting signs with the children she met at a school where the charity had installed new facilities.
On a visit to one school, Meghan spoke to the World Vision camera team: “What we found is that the enrolment at this school went up three times once the latrines were built so that girls had access to clean hygiene and bathroom facilities while they’re at school.” Meghan described at the time how girls quit school completely because they don’t have “bathrooms available to care for themselves”.
The duchess wrote an article for Time Magazine on her return. She spoke then about how a lack of proper sanitation in schools was adversely affecting girls when they start their periods. Meghan called it a “direct barrier” to girls’ education based on the “shame surrounding menstruation” in much of the developing world.
It was on that visit when Meghan was introduced to the Myna Mahila Foundation which works with women and girls in Mumbai’s urban slums. It offers the women stable employment and breaks taboos about menstrual hygiene by provide basic sanitary products. Myna Mahila was one of the seven charities Harry and Meghan nominated for donations at the time of their wedding last year.
World Vision Canada partnered with Meghan during her time in Toronto when she played the role of Rachel Zane in television series Suits.
Thank you for reading. Please drop a line and help us do better.
Regards,
The CSR Journal Team
