Multi award winner and ONE Ambassador Selmor Mtukudzi is in Canada for the International Women’s Day Celebrations. She will be meeting with Canadian dignitaries including Hon. Bob Hault – Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee, Honorable Mike Lake – MNCH opposition critic and MP, David Morrison – Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas, Julie Dzerowicz – MP for Devonport and Ahmed Hussen – Minister of Immigration, to speak to them about girls education.
130 million girls around the world are being denied access to good education. Canada contributes 2 cents per Canadian per day to global education. An extra 2 cents per person per day can help lift girls out of poverty by giving every girl quality education. Poverty hits harder on girls than boys, and because poverty is sexist, most of those girls are in the world’s poorest countries.
“When we deny girls an education, we deny our countries the leaders we need to grow and to prosper. Getting girls in school is one of the most effective ways we can fight extreme poverty. Educating every girl is good for everyone”, said Selmor Mtukudzi.
In 2015 Selmor came together with 7 other African stars to record the song “Strong Girl” for the campaign #PovertyIsSexiest. This saw her attend the World Economic Forum, the SADC conference and the UN conference and speak to world leaders about putting in place policies that support the empowerment of women and girls.
Later that year, she was joined by her male counterparts, (Bono – lead singer for U2 and Founder of ONE, D’Banj – Nigeria, Diamond Platnumz – Tanzania, Banky W – Nigeria), and did a remix of “Strong Girl” and also made a statement that man are in support of the campaign.
Selmor was also instrumental in the passing of the “Electrify Africa” bill in senate and in the House in Washington DC, America when she met with US Representatives, Congressman Ed Royce and Congressman Eliot Engel and added her voice encouraging the US government to partner with institutions in African countries to make electricity available easily. This bill states that it is US policy to partner with Sub Saharan African countries, international financial institutions and African regional economic committees, cooperatives and private sectors to promote access to power services to at least 50 million people in Sub Saharan Africa by 2020.
While in Canada, Selmor will do interviews on Radio and TV including the George Stroumboulopoulos Show as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Press Conference.
