The most exciting outcome of CAMFED’s unique model is its multiplier effect.
For every girl who receives support to go to school, three more will follow, and countless more will benefit.
Girls’ education has the power to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges – and CAMFED is a pan-African movement with a revolutionary model for delivering on this promise.
Every graduate who joins our leadership network, on average, supports at least another three girls in turn. And she’ll go on to mentor and pass on her skills to many more, creating employment and opportunity, tackling inequality and injustice.
This is what we call the Multiplier Effect – the impact a girl’s education has on others’ lives, and on the health, wealth and equality of our world.
The Multiplier Effect is achieved through the interworking of our CAMFED Association, Community Champions and Operations. Together, we create the support system through which the most vulnerable girls can go to school, thrive and successfully transition from school to a life of independence and influence.
They in turn join the CAMFED Association of young women leaders whose members each support more girls to go to school through their individual and collective philanthropy. As a new generation of leaders, members of the CAMFED Association represent a powerful force for systems transformation.
What I love about CAMFED is that it’s a perpetual motion machine: CAMFED graduates themselves then support other kids, and CAMFED grads actually support more kids than CAMFED donors do.
Girls educated with CAMFED’s support go on to join Africa’s largest and fastest-growing network of young women activists. Each member of the Association, on average, supports another three girls to go to school with her own resources, as well as mentoring and encouraging many more.
My education has equipped me with the skills to pursue my passion for teaching and community development. Through my business, I have trained 200 women in soap making and shea butter processing. Some have started their own businesses, enabling them to support their children’s education. In 2022, I was assigned as a professional teacher at a primary school located in a deprived community. I am supplying educational materials and footwear, ensuring vulnerable children have the necessary tools to learn, thrive, and remain in school. To date, I have provided menstrual products and educational support to 420 students.
Through my own fierce determination and with CAMFED’s support, I not only completed secondary school but achieved a diploma in Leadership and Development. Today, I work hand in hand with traditional leaders to eradicate child marriage and empower girls in my community to complete school and fulfill their potential. I also run my own grocery business, selling goods like cooking oil to my community. As an entrepreneur, I have been able to support my three siblings with school fees and over 30 children with school fees, school necessities and food.
Having been supported by CAMFED to complete school, I was proud to be elected as the CAMFED Association National Chairperson for Zambia in 2022. As an Agriculture Guide, I engage the community and educate them on climate-smart agriculture. Through the Learner Guide program, I gained access to financial training and an interest-free loan to start a home furnishing business, selling duvets, pillows and curtains. I am supporting five children with the profits, providing them with school uniforms, shoes, stationery, books, pens, and pencils. I completed school and I want others to do the same!
I was supported by CAMFED in school. I went to Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources and now I am working in the Ministry of Agriculture as Agriculture Extension Development Officer. Using my knowledge as an Extension worker, I support my family, community, and fellow young women to practice climate-smart agriculture. So far I have reached out to 26 young women on a monthly basis through my community meetings. With the salary I get, I support eight siblings with basic needs such as soap, exercise books, and pens — and other boarding girls to go through school.
I run several successful businesses including a fruit farm, a clothing shop, a stationery shop, and the first mobile money business in my community. I use some of my profits to support vulnerable children to go to school, and, in 2018 alone, was able to support 122 children with food, uniforms, books and school fees. I am proud to be able to provide employment for members of my community, particularly other young women. By mid-2020 I was employing two CAMFED Association members in my shops, and providing seasonal work for 5-10 people on my farm.
Through CAMFED investment I got an opportunity to go to school, complete school, and become a leader in my community. Now I am multiplying the benefit of my education by supporting other girls to go to school through influencing various stakeholders to support marginalized girls in my community. As an example, I support five girls to go to school by meeting their school-going costs. I pay for their school fees, buy their uniforms, and buy their menstrual products. This is over and above the support that I give to my siblings, my family, and my two children.
CAMFED Association members on the Multiplier Effect
Hear from the young women leaders multiplying your impact. They explain how they are paying forward the benefits of their education—by stepping up to support others with the resources, skills and encouragement they need to learn and thrive.
The CAMFED Association is the network of women leaders founded by former CAMFED clients, who organize and act on behalf of girls and young women in their communities, ensuring the most vulnerable are seen and served.
As Patience (pictured above) says: “Driven by the scars of poverty, the CAMFED Association is rich in experience and thus works to ensure the next generation is safe from the challenges we faced. It is a lifeline of our communities and a weapon against poverty in our nation and Africa as a whole.”
