Though Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly very good gift-givers, they tend to supplement their birthday celebrations with a charitable donation. This year, it turned out that Meghan had sponsored a dog kennel at Mayhew, an animal charity, in honor of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. On Tuesday, Harry turned 36, and they planned an even more impressive charitable gesture.
The couple supported a donation drive at CAMFED, a charity that promotes girls’ education in Africa, that raised $129,000 over the course of the day. They matched those funds with a $130,000 donation of their own. “No better way to celebrate what really matters,” they said in a message posted on CAMFED’s Twitter. “Thank you to everyone who donated.”
The fundraising campaign began before Meghan’s birthday on August 4 with the hashtag #InspiredByMeghan, and continued through Tuesday after adding #InspiredByHarry. In a previous statement, CAMFED said that the funds would go towards scholarships for women undertaking higher education or vocational training.
“Your gift can help us send more high school graduates to training colleges,” the charity’s executive director Angie Murimirwa said. “Then we will make sure that they have the care and support to do well when they get there, to overcome the disadvantages they often face as girls from marginalised rural areas. Then, as engineers, bricklayers, climate-smart farmers, vets, nurses.… My sisters will become role models in their communities.”
Meghan and Harry’s support for the organization grows out of their passion for the Commonwealth of Nations, which counts 19 African countries among its 54 members, and Meghan was an advocate for girls’ education long before she joined the family. On International Women’s Day in March 2019, Meghan joined Murimirwa for a UN panel discussion about feminism that also included musician Annie Lennox and model Adwoa Aboah.
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