Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wedding gift list REVEALED, saying a lot about their future
MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry have requested wedding gifts be made in the form of a donation to a selection of charities, Kensington Palace has revealed.
Harry and Meghan: Countdown to the royal wedding
The royal couple have not yet announced any joint charity work, but attended the UK team trials for the Invictus Games together on Friday.
In a hint at the sorts of work the pair will carry out together in married life, Kensington Palace announced Harry and Meghan will support charities related to feminism, environmentalism, homelessness, health and the military.
The palace said the couple has selected seven organisations for the public to donate to: CHIVA (Children's HIV Association); Crisis; the Myna Mahila Foundation; Scotty's Little Soldiers - a charity for bereaved Armed Forces children; StreetGames; Surfers Against Sewage; and The Wilderness Foundation UK.
Kensington Palace said: "Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are incredibly grateful for the goodwill shown to them since the announcement of their engagement and are keen that as many people as possible benefit from this generosity of spirit. The couple have therefore asked that anyone who might wish to mark the occasion considers making a donation to charity, rather than sending a wedding gift."Prince Harry and Ms. Markle have personally selected seven organisations they would like to support, reflecting their shared values.
"Prince Harry and Ms Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen.
"The couple have chosen charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women's empowerment, conservation, the environment, homelessness, HIV and the Armed Forces. Many of these are small charities, and the couple are pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work."When Prince William and Kate asked for charity donations for their wedding in 2011, the couple raised more than £1million for good causes.
Meghan visited Myna Mahila Foundation in January last year. The charity gives access to low-cost sanitary products to help girls stay in school.
Writing an article on the visit last year, Ms Markle wrote in Time magazine: "Wasted opportunity is unacceptable with stakes this high. To break the cycle of poverty, and to achieve economic growth and sustainability in developing countries, young women need access to education.
"When we empower girls hungry for education, we cultivate women who are emboldened to effect change within their communities and globally. If that is our dream for them, then the promise of it must begin with us. Period."
Meghan and Harry also visited selected charity Street Games, which uses sport to empower children, during their engagement to Cardiff earlier this year.
The Armed Forces is also an area the couple look set to focus on together, with Scotty's Little Soldiers, a charity supporting children who have lost parents while serving in the British Army, another of the seven charities.
Scotty’s Little Soldiers Founder, Nikki Scott, said: “To have been personally chosen by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is an incredible honour for Scotty’s Little Soldiers and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity. Having met Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace last year, I know that the Armed Forces and looking after the children our heroes have left behind is close to his heart.
"Scotty’s Little Soldiers offers a vital support network for children, who at such a young age, have already gone through so much. Just having the opportunity to spend time with other children who have gone through something similar or receiving a gift on the anniversary of their parent’s death can help reassure them that they are not alone.”
Meghan made her first public appearance with Prince Harry at the Invictus Games last summer when it was held in Toronto.
The sports tournament was dreamt up by Prince Harry to inspire injured servicemen and women, after seeing firsthand the difficulties faced by veterans when they are injured on the front line.
And carrying on their support of the Armed Forces, Meghan revealed her first overseas royal tour will be to Australia with Prince Harry in October, to watch this year’s games.
During their engagement on Friday to watch the trials at Bath University, Ms Markle let slip she would be heading Down Under later this year.
RAF Sergeant Pete Lauder, 39, spoke to the couple when they watched the volleyball, an event he hopes to be chosen to compete in.
Sgt Lauder, who has a serious hip joint condition, said: "We were chatting about Canada, she really enjoyed it and she said she's going to be in Australia."
Before Meghan and Harry began dating, the US actress was already heavily involved in charity work, describing herself as a philanthropist.She visited Rwanda for World Vision’s clean water campaign as part of her role as global ambassador for the charity.
She also travelled to India with the charity to promote women’s rights, in a campaign to improve access to education for young girls.
And she is a women’s advocate for participation and leadership for the United Nations, and gave a now famous speech declaring herself a feminist.
She said: “I am proud to be a woman and a feminist.
“A wife is equal to her husband, a sister to her brother – not better, not worse, they are equal. UN Women has defined 2030 as the expiration date for gender inequality, and here’s what’s staggering: the studies show that at the current rate, the elimination of gender inequality won’t be possible until 2095.”
Calling for women to have a “seat at the table” she added: “It isn’t simply enough to talk about equality, we need to believe in it. It isn’t simply enough to believe in equality, we need to work at it.”
It is thought Harry and Meghan will focus on youth work in their charity endeavours as a married couple, having already shown a focus on the young during their official royal engagements this year.
In January the pair visited youth radio station Represent in Brixton, south London, in their second official outing since announcing their engagement.
Announcing the visit, Kensington Palace at the time said: “Prince Harry and Ms Markle will visit ReprezentRadio in Brixton on 9th January, to see their work supporting young people through creative training in radio and broadcasting, and to learn more about their model of using music, radio and media for social impact.”
The station was set up in response to the rise in knife crime in the capital and aims to help young people learn media and employment skills in a bid to get youths off the streets.
Meanwhile in December, the pair’s first outing together engaged was to Terrence Higgins Trust World Aids Day charity fair in Nottingham, where they met representatives from charities and meet people living with HIV and Aids.
The cause was close to the heart of Prince Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, who was hailed for changing attitudes towards HIV and Aids.
In April 1987 Princess Diana opened the UK’s first purpose built HIV/Aids unit at London Middlesex Hospital, where she was famously pictured shaking the hand of a man suffering with the illness.
Meghan and Harry will marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on May 19.
They want the public to be involved in the day, annoucing a public procession around Windsor to greet fans after the wedding ceremony.