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World Bank loans Zambia 65 mln USD for women, girls' empowerment

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Bank has given Zambia a loan of 65 million U.S. dollars to support the empowerment of women and girls' education over a five-year project, state media reported on Thursday.

The bank has provided the funds under the Girls Education and Women Empowerment and Livelihood (GEWEL) project, which will be implemented in selected districts of the country, according to the Times of Zambia.

Weka Banda, Principal Information Communications Officer in the Ministry of Community Development, said the project would alleviate poverty among the women.

"The World Bank has given Zambia a loan to support women through grants and to also pay school fees for secondary school vulnerable girls," she is quoted as saying by the paper at the official launch of the project in southern Zambia's Choma district.

She added that the women and the girls were chosen because they were the most hit by poverty and that many girls were not in school as families prefer sending the boy child to school.

The project would be implemented in 51 districts in all the country's 10 provinces, she added.

The project, which has three components, namely, Supporting Women Livelihood, Keeping Girls in School, Institutional Strengthening and Systems Building, will benefit about 75,000 women and 14,000 girls at secondary school level. Endit