World philanthropist, Mrs. Melinda Gates is expected to arrived in Nigeria on Thursday, January 9 to meet with Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari to strike a partnership on the numerous challenges and vulnerabilities being faced by women and children at the global and national levels.
A statement by the special adviser on media to Mrs. Buhari on media, Adebisi Olumide-Ajayi said that the partnership between Future Assured, the NGO of Mrs. Buhari and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would lead to improving the lives of women and children.
He said that the meeting between the two philanthropists is coming as an aftermath of one of the side meetings at the 71st UN General Assembly geared towards improving the lives of women and girls, where African First Ladies were gathered to make commitments to the development of adolescent girls in Africa.
Olumide-Ajayi recalled how Mrs. Buhari, who while addressing the High Level event on the sidelines of the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, said Mrs. Gates and herself are both passionate about improving the lives of women and children.
“This statement (made by Mrs. Buhari) is now playing out with Mrs. Gates coming on a working visit to Nigeria on Thursday 19th January, 2017.
“The meeting is expected to also have in attendance wives of the Governors of the 36 states and the FCT, and other relevant stakeholders.”
Mrs. Buhari also received in audience today, Tuesday, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Zhou Pingjian, during which time she called for more support from Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to Federal Government’s effort in reviving the North East region.
She lamented that the region has suffered severe devastation from insurgency and that four years without economic activity has subjected the affected people to extreme poverty.
She said that the worst hit by the insurgency are women, many of whom have been widowed and children that have been orphaned.
Speaking on her flagship programme, Future Assured, Mrs. Buhari said that a lot of efforts have been made in terms of helping internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as those of them that have returned to their communities.
She said that the programme has intervened in 15 local governments and 500 families and is doing more, especially in the area of assisting the 150,000 unaccompanied children in the region. [myad]