The most exciting outcome of CAMFED’s unique model is its multiplier effect.
For every girl who receives support to go to school, three more will follow, and countless more will benefit.
Girls’ education has the power to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges – and CAMFED is a pan-African movement with a revolutionary model for delivering on this promise.
Every graduate who joins our leadership network, on average, supports at least another three girls in turn. And she’ll go on to mentor and pass on her skills to many more, creating employment and opportunity, tackling inequality and injustice.
This is what we call the Multiplier Effect – the impact a girl’s education has on others’ lives, and on the health, wealth and equality of our world.
The Multiplier Effect is achieved through the interworking of our CAMFED Association, Community Champions and Operations. Together, we create the support system through which the most vulnerable girls can go to school, thrive and successfully transition from school to a life of independence and influence.
They in turn join the CAMFED Association of young women leaders whose members each support more girls to go to school through their individual and collective philanthropy. As a new generation of leaders, members of the CAMFED Association represent a powerful force for systems transformation.
What I love about CAMFED is that it’s a perpetual motion machine: CAMFED graduates themselves then support other kids, and CAMFED grads actually support more kids than CAMFED donors do.
Girls educated with CAMFED’s support go on to join Africa’s largest and fastest-growing network of young women activists. Each member of the Association, on average, supports another three girls to go to school with her own resources, as well as mentoring and encouraging many more.
Educated with CAMFED’s support, I’m now a multi-business owner, providing jobs, supporting farmers, and contributing to community development. I run a successful shea business as well as an agri-business, growing and processing groundnuts for products like groundnut paste, cookies and oil. I also own a restaurant where I serve some of the food grown on my farm. My businesses and cooperative combined have improved the livelihoods of over 400 women, helping them build their own fulfilling and dignified livelihoods. With my profits, I’ve donated computers to my community and used my business network and mentoring skills to secure employment for other young women.
After learning more about entrepreneurship from my CAMFED Association sisters, I was inspired to set up an agriculture business. With my business profits, I support myself and my family, and vulnerable children in the community. One is a learner in my former secondary school who is living with a disability and has suffered some discrimination. I provided her with school shoes and socks, as well as psychosocial support — encouraging her to study hard. I am proud that I am able to give back, continuously investing in the education and well-being of future generations.
With support from a CAMFED, I am now running a successful bakery business, called Raisibei Cakesbites — producing quality cakes, bread, cookies and more. I am very passionate about supporting other young women to succeed in education and in business. With my profits, I have supported a tertiary student with her university fees and provided a girl at secondary school with school supplies. I also enjoy passing on my practical skills, and have trained 15 of my fellow CAMFED Association sisters in baking and how to operate a bakery business.
My education has equipped me with the skills to pursue my passion for teaching and community development. Through my business, I have trained 200 women in soap making and shea butter processing. Some have started their own businesses, enabling them to support their children’s education. In 2022, I was assigned as a professional teacher at a primary school located in a deprived community. I am supplying educational materials and footwear, ensuring vulnerable children have the necessary tools to learn, thrive, and remain in school. To date, I have provided menstrual products and educational support to 420 students.
Through my own fierce determination and with CAMFED’s support, I not only completed secondary school but achieved a diploma in Leadership and Development. Today, I work hand in hand with traditional leaders to eradicate child marriage and empower girls in my community to complete school and fulfill their potential. I also run my own grocery business, selling goods like cooking oil to my community. As an entrepreneur, I have been able to support my three siblings with school fees and over 30 children with school fees, school necessities and food.
Having been supported by CAMFED to complete school, I was proud to be elected as the CAMFED Association National Chairperson for Zambia in 2022. As an Agriculture Guide, I engage the community and educate them on climate-smart agriculture. Through the Learner Guide program, I gained access to financial training and an interest-free loan to start a home furnishing business, selling duvets, pillows and curtains. I am supporting five children with the profits, providing them with school uniforms, shoes, stationery, books, pens, and pencils. I completed school and I want others to do the same!
CAMFED Association members on the Multiplier Effect
Hear from the young women leaders multiplying your impact. They explain how they are paying forward the benefits of their education—by stepping up to support others with the resources, skills and encouragement they need to learn and thrive.
The CAMFED Association is the network of women leaders founded by former CAMFED clients, who organize and act on behalf of girls and young women in their communities, ensuring the most vulnerable are seen and served.
As Patience (pictured above) says: “Driven by the scars of poverty, the CAMFED Association is rich in experience and thus works to ensure the next generation is safe from the challenges we faced. It is a lifeline of our communities and a weapon against poverty in our nation and Africa as a whole.”
