Washington D.C, 13 July 2023 (TDI): The United States Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues, Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, is to travel to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, as her first international trip as the Ambassador at Large.
The visit will take place from the 11th to the 20th of July. It will highly focus on addressing women’s issues regarding gender equality and health, which they face globally.
Ambassador Gupta, in Kenya, is anticipated to meet the representatives of the Kenyan Government on shared gender equality priorities. She will also be meeting several women leaders and civil society organizations there.
Ambassador-at-Large, Geeta Rao Gupta will be speaking at #WD2023 in Kigali, Rwanda this year! Join her and other #GenderEquality advocates and leaders as we work together 🤝 to build a more equal world. pic.twitter.com/amrg99EUEq
— The Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (@StateGWI) July 12, 2023
The Ambassador is expected to visit the UNICEF-UNFPA Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting, a program to which the US provides a contribution of $5 million every year.
From July 16, 2023, Ambassador Geeta Rao Gupta will attend the Women Deliver 2023 Conference. The conference will take place in Kigali, Rwanda. The Ambassador will be the US interagency delegation’s head.
The delegation will consist of United States Agency for International Development and Peace Corps representatives.
The conference will assemble 6,000 partners, in Kigali, from international civil society, government, and non-profit organizations.
Read more: United States Diplomats in Pakistan Celebrate World Cleanup Day.
According to a press release by the Department of State, the Ambassador’s presence and participation are a demonstration of, and will further, the US gender equality policies priorities in the region and internationally.
In addition to this, she will also visit an important US program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)’s Determine, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free Mentored, and Safe (DREAMS) program.
The program is working to address women’s issues and to support adolescent girls and young women.
DREAMS Program
The DREAMS program works with the support of the PEPFAR initiative. It addresses the factors that make young women and girls susceptible to HIV. These may incorporate structural factors, like gender-based violence, the barring of women from equal economic opportunities, and an absence of access to a secondary school.
DREAMS works to ensure that adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) are provided with critical support, and works to protect them from HIV and other risks. Read more about the program here.
