CAMFED - An Introduction - Video Transcript
Voiceover In 1993, a group of 32 girls in Zimbabwe started on a journey set to change the future of their communities, their countries, and the world. Poverty had nearly forced them to drop out of school. CAMFED – the Campaign for Female Education – brought them back….
Millions of girls in rural Africa are excluded from education. A girl without education is powerless in the face of hunger; powerless over her own body. Without support, she’ll stay locked in a cycle of poverty, inequality and early marriage.
But what happens when a girl has the opportunity to learn? What changes? She can put her education first, choosing if and whom to marry. After graduation, she will earn twice as much, creating the foundation for entire communities to thrive. She will have a healthier family, with lower rates of HIV/AIDS and malaria. She will invest in her children’s education, and support them to succeed. Through education, she will gain agency and control over her future, and pass on her skills to others. She will teach, practice law, medicine, or make policy. She’ll run a sustainable business, increasing productivity, nourishing communities, and building resilience to climate disasters.
So how do we make these changes a reality? By building a model for girls’ education like no other, led by young women who know what it takes for a girl to go to school. Partnering with parents, teachers, traditional leaders and government, CAMFED has built an unrivalled support network for the most excluded children – across 6 countries and thousands of school communities.
And the most unique and powerful outcome of our work is our pan-African sisterhood, established by our first graduates. Our CAMFED Association of women leaders is more than 300,000 members strong and growing rapidly. We are united by one goal: to ensure that no girl is excluded – that every girl secures her right to education. We also know that educating girls solves some of the world’s biggest problems. And we are the experts in reaching the most excluded girls in our communities.
We get girls into school, keep them there, help them to learn, support them to succeed, and unlock their power to lead. By the end of this decade, we aim to support 8 million of the most vulnerable girls to go to school. And we will partner with governments to better serve the needs of millions more. With lived experience and empathetic leadership, we are setting the course for gender equality, social justice, economic development, and climate resilience. And we are on an incredible trajectory. This is a game-changing moment.