FIRST Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger on Wednesday received a courtesy call from United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Ms. Mikiko Tanaka at her office at State House. During that meeting, possible areas of collaboration aimed at addressing issues affecting the welfare of women and girls were discussed, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency noted.“We spoke about several issues, gender-based violence, health, women’s empowerment, education, issues that affect women and girls, both in the rural and urban areas and how we can work together to alleviate these problems, if not solve them,” the First Lady was quoted as saying in the release.

Meanwhile, Ms. Tanaka said that she was keen to discuss some of the social issues, which pose a challenge to society and the strides that are being made to remedy them.

“Really I was hearing the different perspectives of the social issues affecting women and children in Guyana and what efforts are being made by the First Lady, institutions, people in Guyana, and how the UN system could work together and support the efforts,” she said.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Resident Representative, Ms. Patrice LaFleur accompanied Ms. Tanaka to the meeting.