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CAMFED has been selected by The Audacious Project for our plan to transform the lives of millions of girls in rural Africa.

Every year, The Audacious Project – which is housed at TED – selects and nurtures a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, and brings together an inspiring group of donors and supporters to get them launched.

Led by a Sisterhood of women once excluded from education, our solution, aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, puts us on a trajectory to open up a world of possibility for this generation of girls – and beyond!

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Bringing bold solutions to the world: The 2023 Audacious Cohort

First announced on April 17, 2023 at TED2023 in Vancouver, Canada, we’re proud to be part of a group of Audacious changemakers bringing bold solutions to the world.

CAMFED’s bold idea is to:

  • provide five million marginalized girls with the financial and social support they need to thrive and succeed in secondary school
  • enable young women’s transition to work and leadership, and
  • partner with governments to change the systems that hold girls back, reaching millions more

The Audacious Project has catalyzed significant support for this strategy, and is rallying others to come behind it. To learn more, watch this interview with our CEO, Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa. To be part of the journey, follow @Camfed and #AudaciousProject

Find out more about Audacious and CAMFED

Watch The Audacious Project interview with CAMFED CEO Angie Murimirwa
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From poverty and inequality to possibility and social justice

The chance of a girl from a poor, rural background completing secondary school in rural Africa is vanishingly small — even before the pandemic, 95% never made it that far. Many financial, environmental and social barriers get in the way of girls learning and staying in school, especially as they reach adolescence. Poverty and patriarchy perpetuate child marriage, further stacking the odds against girls.

The 5% of young women who complete school face an abyss, with few opportunities to find jobs, build independent livelihoods, or participate in decision-making. In a decade that has seen the gains recently made for women and girls rolled back globally, this leads to chronic underrepresentation of women in education roles and other leadership positions.

CAMFED’s holistic approach is designed to change this reality, and we now have a unique opportunity to transform the futures of millions of girls.

As we scale our model and more of our graduates progress into leadership positions at all levels of the education system — and in other critical policy areas — we can reshape systems to better serve those at the margins and benefit society as a whole.

Learn how CAMFED is championing women's leadership
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TED Talk: Changing the way you think about girls' education

CAMFED’s model elevates the deep expertise of those who have experienced first-hand some of our world’s most pressing problems. In her TED Talk, first delivered at TED2023 in Vancouver, CAMFED CEO Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa invites us to see the world through the eyes of a girl in rural Africa, and experience the difference that the support of a sisterhood – and a leadership model designed to transform systems from within – can make.

Watch Angie's TED Talk on TED.com
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The Sisterhood powering CAMFED's Audacious plan

Key to the success of our bold plan is our powerful pan-African network of women leaders, who were themselves once excluded from school. As ‘big sisters’ and mentors to vulnerable girls, these proximate leaders mobilize their communities in support of girls’ education, and together dismantle the multiple barriers that hold girls back. 

More than 27% of CAMFED Association members belong to decision-making bodies, amplifying the voices of marginalized women and girls and challenging the status quo.  They are shifting the narrative and ensuring representation in climate, health, education, business, technology and policy.

 

Hear from some of the game changers at the heart of our movement

We are working at three levels to bring our 2030 strategy to life:

1. Engaging with schools and communities to implement a comprehensive support system targeted at the most marginalized girls, tackling impediments to their attendance and success in secondary school.

Role models in our Sisterhood of change leaders educated with CAMFED support, the CAMFED Association, provide girls with mentorship and skills support in the classroom, while convening families and authorities to tackle harmful gender norms beyond the school gates.

2. Enabling graduates to transition to work and leadership 

They’ll be invited to join our CAMFED Association, uniting in a pan-African Sisterhood committed to supporting the younger generation of girls.

3. Partnering with governments to embed what works in national school systems, to ensure they better serve the needs of girls.

This, in turn, will benefit millions more in an ever-accelerating flywheel of change.

Inspired to give?

Join the champions powering CAMFED's Sisterhood of change leaders, and help us make our bold plan a reality!

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Read, watch, listen

Discover how support for girls' education and women's leadership - done right - can change everything

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NewsMalawi

CNN profiles CAMFED’s Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa in Changemakers series

CNN’s African Voices Changemakers highlights the leadership of Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa and her sisters in the CAMFED Association, deploying their lived experience and deep expertise to achieve gender equality, economic development and climate action through girls’ education.

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NewsMalawi

NPR on CAMFED mentors in Malawi – protecting girls during COVID-19

NPR’s Malaka Gharib interviewed CAMFED Association leader Eliza Chikoti in Malawi about the critical work of role models and mentors in CAMFED's Sisterhood, including young women’s activism in the face of COVID-19.

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NewsGlobal

Nick Kristof Selects CAMFED as Grand Prize Winner of his Holiday Impact Prize

"CAMFED empowers girls and young women, and they in turn reshape their countries. Girls' education may be the highest-return investment available in the world today." - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

Thank you to our generous recent donors

Together we are breaking the cycle of poverty

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Melissa K Goodwill $52.9

Gladys Ayala $1052

Gabi Rizzuto $100

Linda Penn $100

Julia Pistor $31.9

John Dickinson $100

Chris Parrish $37.1

Sheila Eswaran $211

Barbara Bielby £26.2

Rumbidzai Kauta $21.2

Anna Gibson $52.4

jenna junker $10.9

Christal Sohl $500

Laurel Tacoma $31.9

Margaret Duggan $100