Executive Advisor, CAMFED Association

CAMFED 101 with Fiona Mavhinga and Mercy Chirwa
Mercy Chirwa joins Fiona Mavhinga in conversation, to give an update on Cyclone Freddy, two months on. She also shares what it is that motivates…
Executive Advisor, CAMFED Association
Fiona Mavhinga was one of the first young women who completed her education with CAMFED’s support. Today, Fiona is a lawyer and leads on the strategic development of the CAMFED Association – the peer support and leadership network of former CAMFED clients. Through the CAMFED Association, women are taking action on the big challenges their countries face – from child marriage, and girls’ exclusion from education, to climate change.
Having experienced first-hand the vulnerability even of those young women who manage to complete secondary school – with no resources, and no employment opportunities available in rural areas – Fiona became a key founder of the CAMFED Association. Organized into elected committees from district to national level, the Association provides a robust mechanism for cascading knowledge and offering training and leadership opportunities to young school leavers. Connected through mobile technology, young women overcome rural isolation, help build each other’s lives, and use their experience and expertise to support many more vulnerable children to stay in school, thrive and lead change. The CAMFED Association now provides the backbone of the programs through which CAMFED is bringing about systemic change. As Executive Advisor, CAMFED Association, Fiona is leading on ways to grow and replicate this powerful model.
Fiona has spoken on numerous international platforms, including girls’ education policy roundtables with members of the UK Government and the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. She stood with Malala Yousafzai when world leaders committed to the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations in 2015; spoke at the Obama Foundation Summit in 2017; and joined The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, at a special event organized by The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust in Zambia in 2018, celebrating what young change-makers are achieving in their communities. In 2021, Fiona spoke alongside policymakers and researchers at an event with the Yidan Prize Foundation and the University of Cambridge on creating a better world through education; joined CAMFED’s CEO to accept the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation; spoke at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, and addressed the link between girls’ education and climate resilience as part of a Devex conversation series on the future of humanitarian action, in the wake of CAMFED being awarded the Hilton Humanitarian Prize.
Mercy Chirwa joins Fiona Mavhinga in conversation, to give an update on Cyclone Freddy, two months on. She also shares what it is that motivates…
I am Winnie Farao, a founding member of the CAMFED Association of women leaders in Zimbabwe. I am part of an unstoppable movement who are…
Today, Michelle Obama's Girls Opportunity Alliance announced CAMFED as one of its non-profit collaborators on a new initiative to educate and empower more girls.
At the One Young World 2022 Summit - held in Manchester, UK, and digitally, from September 5th to 9th - Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED Executive Director…
The final conversation in the online series hosted by the Hilton Foundation and Devex under the theme "The Future of Humanitarian Action: The Power of…
Our leaders are participating in several events at COP26, bringing the deep expertise, lived experience and grassroots activism of young African women to a global…
CAMFED Association Executive Adviser Fiona Mavhinga and CAMFED Chief Executive Officer Lucy Lake attended several days of celebratory events to mark the 2021 Princess of…
On October 13th, 2021, three of our leaders - Angeline Murimirwa, Fiona Mavingha and Lydia Wilbard - accepted the 2021 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize…
As part of a new series, developed with the Royal Geographical Society, BBC Radio Four is exploring 39 ways in which people around the globe…
CAMFED Association leader Judith Msindo describes how her own struggles inform her determination to support and seek justice for victims of abuse or neglect, and…
As a child of rural Zimbabwe, education saved me from poverty - I’ve been reflecting on what the coronavirus is doing to community.
Fiona and other educated young women in the CAMFED Association are focused on helping communities come to terms with social distancing, and to ensure they…
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