(CU)_The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), is international non-governmental, non-profit organization headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It seeks to eradicate poverty in Africa through education and empowerment of young women. The organisation has launched initiatives in several African nations, including Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.
CAMFED was founded by Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist Ann Cotton in 1993. She began her career in a London school by establishing one of the first centres teaching girls who had been excluded from mainstream education. However CAMFED started many years later, in 1993, by providing education for a group of 32 girls in Zimbabwe. Since then, the organisation has expanded its contributions across five sub-Saharan countries. To date, around 1,065,700 children have directly benefited from programmes initiated by CAMFED, while another 3 million young people have benefited from programmes in a network of over 5,000 partner schools.
During her visits to the African continent Cotton discovered poverty as the main reason behind low school enrolments among girls. Since boys were more likely to get a paid job after graduating, daughters were rarely sent to school. However, Welsh philanthropist knew educating girls minimised the likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDS, while these girls would also marry later and have healthier children. Having recognised the psychological and economic impact of poverty and exclusion on girls, Cotton sought to educate and empower girls, with the support of their communities, so that they may shape their own destinies and change the communities and nations they live in.
The CAMFED founder is a noted speaker on international platforms, including the World Economic Forum, the Skoll World Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. She has won numerous awards in recognition of her work, including an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s 2006 New Year Honours List, Woman of the Year in the UK, the UK Social Entrepreneur of the Year and WISE Prize for Education. In a letter of congratulations for the latter award, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron wrote: “The scale and impact of the work she has done through CAMFED to educate millions of girls and young women in Africa is simply remarkable.”
