Meru County First lady Priscilla Murungi has embarked on spearheading women empowerment in a program dubbed ‘Twaweza’. The programme targeting women, newborns, infants and children, adolescents, and the elderly will be launched on June 7 at Meru National Polytechnic. Women from across the county will take part in a two-day seminar under the theme "Empowering women towards Economic, Social and Political Transformation". Twaweza will focus on women empowerment and gender equality through enhanced maternal and child health care, provision of skills to teenagers, leadership training, cancer screening, imparting business skills, reducing gender-based violence as well as promoting the welfare of the aged. Speaking during the inaugural meeting of the Twaweza board, Mrs Murungi said the programme was meant to empower women in the rural areas. "Majority of the women live in rural areas and go through most of the challenges. The government has come up with several legislative attempts to ensure equitable distribution of wealth, jobs, political participation and leadership. There is a lot of ignorance among women," Mrs Murungi said. She said Twaweza will give women basic knowledge on their rights and access to government opportunities. "Women make up 50.2% of Kenya’s total population. This makes them one of the largest, untapped participants of economic and social growth. The Twaweza program seeks to remedy the situation by reducing women exclusion and promote their involvement in every aspect of growth and development," she stated. Twaweza also seeks to enlighten on the women rights against cultural biases resulting from women’s rights and their political participation, education, socio-economic status, legal rights related to land inheritance, health and welfare. "We want to see a woman using her potential to feed her family and to be politically motivated to seek leadership positions," the board chairperson Josephine Mbaya said. Education executive LinnerNkirote said the programme will promote nutrition among children helping end stunted growth in the county. She noted that Meru County has been found to have high stunted growth rates leading to the launch of ‘Generation Plus Programme’ by Mrs Murungi to address the challenge. "We are looking at the whole scope of nutrition including feeding, deworming and provision of vitamins to early childhood learners. Teenage pregnancies, early marriages, HIV, FGM and school dropout rates will be addressed. We want to build the youth of tomorrow today," Ms Nkirote said. While lauding the Twaweza programme, the education CEC said they would involve men by creating champions of women empowerment. The Meru Twaweza Program comes to act as a redress to the imbalances in families across Meru County to ensure that women are not subjected to discrimination. Under the programme, women will be trained in entrepreneurial skills to empower them to engage in businesses, profitable farming and economic activities. The initiative will partner with the Meru County Microfinance Corporation to enable women to access cheap loans and promote a saving and investment culture. "The Department of Agriculture and Trade will also engage women in economic activities. We will ensure that funds are set aside to train women to gain efficiency in their economic undertakings and ensure that women benefit from 30 per cent allocation in tenders and appointments," the patron said. The County Government allocated of Sh10 million this financial year and hopes to raise more funds from the private sector, donors and well-wishers, learning institutions among others in building capacity for the women in the areas of interest. The program will be implemented through the office of the First Lady under the Department of Education, Technology, Culture, Gender and Social Development, supported by the departments of Health and the Directorate of External Linkages in liaison with the office of the Governor. Twaweza is anchored on Governor Kiraitu Murungi’s Manifesto, the National First Lady’s Strategy framework for 2018-2022, The National Gender Policy, Health Act 2017, Kenya Vision 2030, Sustainable Development Goals and Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda.