CAMFED Association

The CAMFED Association (CAMA), the network of women leaders educated with CAMFED support, is the largest of its kind in Africa, and spurring remarkable change as young women from rural communities use their education to benefit others, and work to break the cycle of poverty for good. The Association's power lies in its institutional, as well as its emotional, infrastructure. Members share huge determination and resilience against a background of rural poverty and marginalization. They are deeply committed to ‘plowing back’ the benefits of their education into their communities. Organized into elected committees from district to national level, the CAMFED Association has a robust mechanism for cascading knowledge. 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, learn and succeed. Association members are teachers, business entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors, social workers and local political leaders, all with a strong and intimate understanding of the barriers to girls’ education, putting themselves at the forefront of dismantling those barriers, and rallying everyone in their communities to do the same.