We work in a context where families struggling to provide regular meals simply can’t afford to send their girls to school, so CAMFED provides targeted, financial support to cover a wide range of school-going costs.
These include the required school uniform and shoes, fees, books, and school supplies, as well as items that address the additional hurdles girls face, including menstrual products and bicycles or boarding fees, ensuring that girls can travel long distances more safely, or board directly at schools far away from their villages.
We believe that effectively supporting an individual means investing in the structures that surround her. We work in partnership with rural communities – partnerships founded on trust and deep respect for the expertise and commitment of community members.
We know that successfully supporting a girl means investing in all aspects of her life, providing both financial and social support, and working to change the context of her exclusion.
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.
