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The latest charitable project from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation has reached out to girls in Nigeria as they begin a new school term.
The charitable foundation, which was launched in 2020, has funded a project based in Nigeria called the The GEANCO Foundation, which provides school supplies and period products to girls and young women in the West African nation.
It comes as the Duchess of Sussex bonded with Nigerian athletes at the Invictus Games after finding out she had Nigerian roots, and said she couldn’t wait to visit the country ‘for [her] mum and the kids’.
A post on Archewell’s website noted the latest contribution from the Sussexes’ charity to the schoolgirls, offering them stationery, backpacks and menstrual products as they begin the new term.
The post also detailed more of GEANCO’s work in the region, including providing education on menstrual health to teenage girls and taking steps to improve their overall health and wellbeing.
Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Foundation has teamed up with the Nigeria-based GEANCO Foundation to support schoolgirls in the West African nation
The post explained: ‘GEANCO provides critical health care and education services in Nigeria.
‘Its David Oyelowo Leadership Scholarship provides full tuition, medical care, and social and emotional support to young female victims of terrorism and gender inequality in Nigeria.’
The project comes after the Sussexes spent a week in Dusseldorf, Germany, for the Invictus Games 2023.
At the opening ceremony for the tournament, Prince Harry revealed that his wife would be lending its athletes her personal support after finding through a genealogy test that she is 43% Nigerian.
In the subsequent days, she was seen hugging a competitor and describing her as ‘my Nigerian sister’, before being introduced to further members of the team and the defence chief, who gave her a nickname – Amira Ngozi Lolo – she could use if she ever visits the country.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (pictured at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf this month) founded Archewell in 2020
The Archewell Foundation has provided funds to support schoolgirls in the West African nation as they begin a new term
As well as providing backpacks and other school supplies, Archewell and GEANCO are also providing period products
Amira is a warrior princess from a legend, Ngozi means ‘blessed’ and Lolo is ‘royal wife’.
Meghan and Harry were serenaded in a group huddle, as one Nigerian led them in a chant of ‘Gbosas’, which roughly translates as ‘kudos’.
Derek Cobbinah, who helped co-ordinate Nigeria’s debut in this year’s competition, told Hello! that the Duchess was ‘deeply touched’ by the nickname and that she is hoping to organise a family trip to the country.
‘She said she couldn’t wait to visit Nigeria for her mum and the kids,’ he revealed.
‘She’s always welcome to visit Nigeria and other African countries.’
The revelation of Meghan’s Nigerian heritage came on an episode of her Archetypes podcast after she did a genealogy test ‘a couple years ago’.
She vowed to ‘start to dig deeper into all this’ during her discussion with comedians Issa Rae and Ziwe Fumudoh.
Archewell’s latest project comes after Meghan’s Spotify podcast, Archetypes, was axed following its first series. The Duchess also recently withdrew her bid to trademark the name.
The move to cancel the podcast in June was officially said to have been a ‘mutual’ decision between the streaming giant and Archewell Audio – the Duchess and Prince Harry’s company.
But sources close to the £15million deal – which was signed by the couple in 2020 – said it was was dropped after the pair did not produce enough content to warrant the full payout.
However, applications lodged with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveal that Archewell ‘revived’ its trademark bid for the Archetypes podcast title even after the Spotify deal had already been dropped.
But the application has now been withdrawn following an unsuccessful 17-month battle to have the title protected.
Meghan’s quest to trademark the name began in March last year when the application was first lodged. But in January USPTO rejected it because of the ‘likelihood of confusion’ with an existing trademark of the same name.
Archewell’s latest project to support schoolgirls in Nigeria is the first update on the foundation’s website since August 12, when the organisation noted Prince Harry’s participation in a polo tournament in Singapore in aid of Sentebale, a charity he founded alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006.
