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Diaspora Britain


W


HAT DO THE BRITISH deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, Bineta Diop (who has been named in TIME’s and New


African’s top 100 list of most influen- tial people for 2011), Mariella Frostrup (a British broadcaster, cultural critic and gender rights advocate), and film stars such as Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Cuba Gooding Junior, have in common? They are all involved in supporting the Gender Rights, Equality and Action Trust (or GREAT for short), founded by Frostrup. Why gender rights? Because globally,


despite international conventions, treaties and Millennium Development Goals, women are still so far away from gender equality. For instance, women make up 75% of the world’s illiterate people, do two thirds of the hours worked but earn 10% of the world’s income, and therefore not surprisingly, make up the majority of the world’s poor. What is more, the biggest cause of in-


jury and death of women worldwide is domestic violence. In the UK, Mariella Frostrup and her


other three trustees – Karen Ruimy, Jason McCue and Marc Carter – celebrated their charity gala evening at one of London’s newest and most luxurious five-star hotels. Te Hotel Corinthia which “was thrilled to be supporting such an important cause”, provided a stunning location for GREAT’s exclusive party. Te grand finale of the charity evening


Patricia Lee-Sang writes about a new initiative to empower African women, founded in Britain by the broadcaster, cultural critic and gender rights advocate, Mariella Frostrup (pictured above).


A great initiative for African women


90 | October 2011 | New African


was a private auction which raised hun- dreds of thousands of pounds towards the first Pan African Centre for Gen- der, Peace and Development, the project of GREAT’s flagship partner, Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) in Senegal, headed by Bineta Diop. In stark contrast to the grand splen-


dour of the evening is the critical situa- tion of the majority of women in Africa, whom it was all for. According to Mariella Frostrup: “The challenges facing women liv-


ing on the African continent are varied, complex and everyday. But one thing is certain: when women are excluded from social and political life, communities break down. Many of the problems that afflict


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