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Angeline Murimirwa to join HRH The Duchess of Sussex on International Women’s Day panel
We’re delighted to announce that on Friday, March 8th, CAMFED’s Executive Director in Africa, Angeline Murimirwa will represent CAMFED’s CAMA alumnae leaders when she joins HRH The Duchess of Sussex for an International Women’s Day panel.
Convened by The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, the panel will include CAMFED Patron Julia Gillard, Annie Lennox OBE, Adwoa Aboah, and Chrisann Jarrett, and will be chaired by Anne McElvoy, Senior Editor of The Economist.
This unique and inspirational panel of high-level female thought leaders and activists will gather at King’s College London to shine a spotlight on the barriers girls and young women still face across the world, and the opportunities unlocked when they are treated fairly and equally alongside men.
For CAMA’s young leaders, it’s important to go beyond talking, but to act today, with urgency, for all those girls who need us. We hope this event will inspire people to join our collective effort to change the status quo for women and girls for good. It all starts with education.
Angeline Murimirwa, founding CAMA member and CAMFED’s Executive Director in Africa
Angeline was one of the first young women supported through school by CAMFED, and is a co-founder of its CAMA alumnae network. She and her fellow CAMA leaders have a unique insight into the poverty-related challenges facing girls and young women in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Once marginalized and vulnerable, born into families which could not afford to send them to school, they faced a bleak future of early marriage and pregnancy, and a lifetime of financial dependence on others.
Angeline will speak to these issues on Friday’s panel, and underscore the importance of female grassroots leadership in reaching out to the most invisible girls, and establishing community support structures to unlock the transformative potential of education. “As educated young women, CAMA’s 120,000 activists are now leading development in their communities,” Angeline says. “Successful teachers, doctors, lawyers, and businesswomen, they demonstrate how education can break the cycle of poverty. CAMA members each, on average, support three other vulnerable children to go to school. They commit time, and as much of their own income as possible, to ensure that more children have the support they need.”
But with 52.2 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa out of school, there is much more to be done, and on International Women’s Day, CAMFED is highlighting the power of partnerships, including the one launched in 2017 with The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, to reach the most invisible children.
Our alumnae understand what it is to be invisible. They know that inclusion is power. As CAMA leaders, they use their new-found power for good.
We are behind CAMA because its members are the absolute experts in how to transform the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalized children. The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust will use its platform to promote their expertise and commitment, to encourage others around the world to get behind CAMA, too. If we all work together, the cycle of poverty will be broken.
Nicola Brentnall, CEO, The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust
The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, with HM The Queen as Patron and HRH The Duke of Sussex as President, has stepped up directly behind the work of the alumnae leaders of the Campaign for Female Education. Their work aims to champion, fund and connect young leaders of change, including highlighting CAMA’s work to reach the most invisible girls and support them to go to school.
Join us this International Women’s Day to make the world a better, safer, healthier, wealthier and more equitable place for all of us.