GEWEL funds to 37 districts intact – Phiri

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes @SunZambian THE disbursement of funds for the Girls Education, Women Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project will not be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Minister of Gender Elizabeth Phiri has said. Ms Phiri said that funds for the GEWEL project had already been set aside and the Ministry was going round the country monitoring the projects before going to the second phase of the project. In an interview with the Sun, Ms Phiri said in the first phase, the GEWEL project had supported about 16,000 girls in 27 districts under the project-keeping girls in schools and that plans were under way to scale up the project to 37 districts reaching about 64,000 girls.    Ms Phiri said that the Ministry had further supported about 75,000 women from 21 districts under the project empower women through improved livelihoods and that plans were underway to support more women in 71 districts reaching about 158,500 women. “The programme of supporting women is important because it is creating employment opportunities for women through entrepreneurship before we have then the grand they first receive a training in business skills, “And an amount of K2,500 is given to them in form grants and their lives are never the same its total transforming,” she said. Ms Phiri said that government was committed to up lifting the livelihood of the Zambian people especially women and girls who had lagged behind for a long time. She said the GEWEL programme was very important to government because it supported girls who were currently not in school due to poverty by helping them to go back to school and empower money to be entrepreneurs.  The Sun