The CAMFED Association (CAMA) Effect - Video Transcript

Pearl Nikki Quarmyne, CAMFED Association (CAMA) Chairperson Prospera was only 16 when she dropped out of school because her mother couldn’t afford her fees. At that moment I think she felt there was no hope and that her life was going to be just menial labor, extreme poverty, and having to depend on others.

This could have been my story. My name is Pearl Nikki Quarmyne. I’m a university student and I’m the chairperson for CAMFED Association (CAMA) Mfantseman. CAMA is a movement of women all across Africa committed to plowing back the benefits of their education into their communities.

Good morning, everyone.

Pearl’s Class Good morning, Pearl.

Pearl Nikki Quarmyne, CAMFED Association (CAMA) Chairperson I joined CAMA when I completed Senior High School in 2014 and I also became a Learner Guide. Being a Learner Guide turned my life around. Through the Learner Guide program, we as CAMA are able to address the issues of students in my community and across Ghana. The Learner Guide program motivated me to do more in my community to support vulnerable children, people in my community.

Some of the big issues facing the young people in my community are teenage pregnancy, school dropouts and early marriage. Through the Ghana Education Service, traditional leaders, schools and other community stakeholders we set up sensitization programs to advise, to support, to give guidance to our members and other vulnerable groups on how they should tackle issues they are facing.

So we’ll be here tomorrow and we want the participants to come with energy, that energy, that zeal to learn, that is all that they have to come with because we are coming with everything needed for the training to be successful.

We work with community stakeholders to help us identify people in need, so we provide them with trainings like the financial literacy, entrepreneurship trainings, reproductive health education, to help them make healthier choices and to lead a secured financial future. When we find children who are at risk of dropping out of school, we rally support from the communities and assist them with the materials or supports that they need.

Prospera had been missing from school for almost a year when my other CAMA sisters and I found her. So we supported her with basic educational materials and paid her enrolment fees. Now, Prospera is back in school, she’s a prefect and she’s having her finals, and she’s doing very well.

The CAMFED Association (CAMA) Effect is the effect that CAMA members are having on their communities. A young girl who has access to education has access to opportunities, and that gives her the opportunity to lift herself and her family out of poverty, bringing about change for girls and young women in their communities.

We are in this world together and we all need each other at some point in life and so we should be there to help one another to make the world a better place.