THE SHE WORD INTERVIEWS SAMANTHA ROWE-BEDDOE, FOUNDER OF THE OLWYN FOUNDATION

the US, it really feels as though the rights of women and girls are under attack.

One of the areas we discussed was how women can never achieve true equality if we don't have control of our bodies. I have seen at first hand the huge ambition from NGOs around the world, to stop the barbaric practice of FGC and will continue to support organisations operating within this area for as long as it takes. I also believe underage marriage goes hand in hand with thiswhen girls are forced into marriage they usually stop going to school and often become pregnant when they are still children themselves. Education is at the heart of this - if a girl can continue to go to school and avoid marriage and pregnancy until she is older, then her life chances will be very different - if you allow women to thrive then the nation around them will thrive as well - there is no point having over half of your population hidden behind closed doors.

It is thought that the global employment rate for women is 45% whereas for men it is 75%. In 2015 the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that if we were to achieve complete gender employment equality, global GDP would soar by 26% which is the equivalent to an extra $28,000 Billion coming into the global economy.

The SHE Word is an empowering podcast for Women available on YouTube and Spotify, present on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, and now on Air Malta’s in-flight entertainment system.

The podcast features three women and the show’s host Trudy Kerr, sitting at a kitchen table having ‘Conversations women rarely have, but really should’. A key part of The SHE Word is the kitchen table setting - and for that,the show thanks to Samantha Rowe-Beddoe, founder of the Olwyn Foundation. Sam, who moved to Malta in 2017, set up Olwyn in 2018 to champion the rights of women and girls all around the world. She has also appeared on a number of the shows, contributing to conversations about Women and Age and Women’s Rights.

“I have always considered myself a feminist and as I grew up, it really felt as though women we re achieving more parity with men in the choices that we could make in our lives. However, it really feels that over the past decade that women's rights and violence against women and girls is on the increase. The rise of social media has definitely had a hugely negative effect on women and girls, the gender pay gap seems to be increasing rather than decreasing and there are worrying trends like the growth in domestic violence and the lack of prosecutions for sexual crimes like rape and assault. When you then think about what's going on in countries like Afghanistan and even in what we thought were safe countries like

Whilst Olwyn often works in Africa on projects, we also focus on projects closer to home, things that especially affect young people both here in Malta and in the UK. For example, consent is a word that seems to need to be reiterated repeatedly these days doesn't it? Our young people especially feel the pressure to become sexually active, often before they are able to fully understand adult relationships. Olwyn has been supporting organisations like the online resource FUMBLE and the schools arts programme TENDER to help young people to navigate sex and what constitutes a healthy relationship. Young people are especially vulnerable to sexual coercion which now starts as young as primary school.

Online pornography has its part to play in all this, of course, but rather than wringing our hands in despair, we have to arm our young people and give them the tools to handle this new world where technology is not always in their best interests and the pressure to become an 'adult' is getting younger and younger."

Follow The SHE Word on YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Find more out about the Olwyn Foundation at www.olwynfoundation.org