Supporting young women school graduates to start businesses, seek employment, and access further education
Led and facilitated by members of the CAMFED Association, who were typically themselves supported to go to school by CAMFED, the program provides mentorship, skills and resources, secondary school graduates to
The program includes
This support comes at the critical time, when young women continue to be vulnerable to exploitative labor and early marriage as they graduate into a context with few opportunities to establish a fulfilling, independent livelihood.
After the initial training, young women can gain access to additional expert training in specialized skills, including in climate-smart agriculture delivered by Agriculture Guides, and more in-depth business training and support provided by Business Guides.
The systemic issues of poverty and gender inequality that can keep girls from accessing school, or learning when they get there, continue to create significant financial and social barriers after they graduate. The young women we support typically graduate into low income communities which depend on subsistence agriculture and are characterized by a lack of quality employment – a precarious situation which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of climate change.
Young women in this context lack the capital, connections, and assets to create their own employment through entrepreneurship. There are few local women leaders to act as role models and mentors to help younger generations to define and pursue aspirations of economic independence and leadership. This means that urban migration or early marriage – both of which leave women extremely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation – are often their only perceived options.
CAMFED’s post-school Transition Program therefore offers the vital support to enable young women to capitalize on their education, and live safe and fulfilling lives.
We continue to refine and develop this program with young women in the CAMFED Association, who possess the expertise, insights and connections in areas such as climate-smart agriculture, business, and health. They train other members of the CAMFED Association as Transition Guides, or peer educators. Transition Guides then support girls over a six to 12-month period as they approach the end of lower secondary school, and help them transition safely to higher secondary education, vocational training, tertiary education, entrepreneurship, or employment.
The Transition course is designed around practical learning. Guides deliver their sessions in small groups, connecting young women to their peers, and helping them to improve their health and well-being, and make important life decisions.
Young women on the Transition Program join together to set up group businesses, for example, with ‘practice grants’ designed to help them gain the experience they need, and to learn what works, as they run small enterprises together. Those young women who choose to pursue enterprise can gain access to seed financing grants and further in-depth support from experts in the CAMFED Association.
Like Learner Guides, Transition Guides can earn a vocational (BTEC) qualification to recognize their work, which in turn improves their own employment and higher education prospects.
CAMFED's Transition Guide Program was first introduced in Zimbabwe and Tanzania in 2016, then expanded to Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia in 2018.
By the end of 2023, 12,712 Transition Guides had been trained, supporting thousands of young women into independence.
By the end of 2023, Transition Guides had already supported 303,115 young women school graduates to start businesses, seek employment, and access further education.
Across Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, an average of 80% of young women transition towards a secure livelihood (through paid employment, entrepreneurship or further study) within 12 months of completing the Transition Program.
CAMFED has supported 20,342 young women into tertiary or further education so far.
My message to girls is that they should believe in themselves — they can do it. There's nothing impossible.
CAMFED’s support made my dream of training as a journalist a reality. Now, I amplify the voices of marginalized girls and women in Malawi through my professional platform. I am also a Core Trainer of CAMFED Learner Guides (helping girls to thrive in school) and Transition Guides (helping recent school graduates to find employment, run businesses or apply for further education) at district level.
My name is Prisca. I am the mother of Suzen who is a Transition Guide* for Samfya district. My daughter Suzen was privileged to attend a CAMFED Association business and leadership training where she got a grant of K750.00. CAMFED has not only been beneficial to my daughter Suzen, but to the family as a whole.
January 2021
Transition Guide Doris started out as a Learner Guide supporting girls’ studies. Now she runs a successful food processing business and focuses on transition training. Here she is with a group she has trained how to make tomato sauce, and says proudly of one of her ‘Transitees’, “Violet is a farmer and a businesswoman like me now, producing liquid soaps and peanut butter, jam, and tomato and chilli sauce.”
Laura Saunders £78.1
Erin Birmingham $58.2
Helen Harvey £26.2
Deborh Case $500
Aimee Miller $158
Lucinda Morrisey $158
Emily Reardon $1052
susan. J Feingold $26.6
Jacqueline Davis $158
Susan Strome $4000
Angela Thompson £80
Paul George $158
Benjamin Woodbridge $400
Jacquelyn Sullivan $1262
Lenore Denise Williams $3000
