Former Spice Girl launches anti-violence campaign in Nepal

Former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell has launched a campaign to promote maternal health care and women’s rights in Nepal.

Halliwell is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund, Entertainment Daily reports while on a visit to Nepal, Halliwell is visiting women who live in the south-west of the country, in order to increase public awareness of the gender-based violence women, there, are facing. Halliwell is also discussing the dangers of domestic abuse and a lack of medical care for pregnant women.

Entertainment Daily says Halliwell while speaking to reporters said, “When we empower women and take care of them, everyone benefits.” BBC News adds Halliwell met with rape victims who had taken refuge at the shelter. A local women's organization had recently conducted a survey in two Nepalese districts; the survey showed over 80% of women had been abused by their husbands.