Camfed Commits to Educate One Million Girls

NEW YORK - Sept. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Camfed (Campaign for Female Education), an international nonprofit organization that invests in the education of girls and empowerment of young women in rural Africa, today announced their strategic goal to support one million girls through their secondary school education and into successful, secure livelihoods.

Camfed’s announcement is part of the Clinton Global Initiative’s CHARGE (The Collaborative for Harnessing Ambition and Resources for Girls’ Education) Commitment, which was announced by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the final day of the tenth annual CGI Annual Meeting in New York City.

“Our goal is to reach marginalized and excluded girls in rural communities in sub Saharan Africa and support them to complete a full cycle of secondary education,” said Lucy Lake, CEO of Camfed. “Our commitment to these students doesn’t end with graduation. We will work with them and support them to move forward from school into economic independence and positions of leadership.”

CHARGE is a top-priority promise that unites the efforts of Government, civil society organizations, and private sector corporations to work together towards one common goal in supporting the education of girls around the world. “We are excited and honored to sign up for this commitment,” said Lake. “This is an ambitious undertaking that will multiply opportunities for girls and young women in rural areas of Africa.”

Camfed will join 30 organizations in CHARGE to lift women and children out of poverty and pave the way for a better life, increased opportunity, better healthcare, and access to education. The other commitment partners include Discovery, Intel, Malala Fund, Microsoft, and Pearson, among many others. “We know when girls have access to quality education in both primary and secondary schools, cycles of poverty are broken, economies grow, glass ceilings crack and potential is unleashed," said Secretary Clinton.

Heads of state, CEOs, philanthropists, influencers and media attended the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, which wraps up today. The CGI has been highly successful in its mission to create social change. Since the program was launched in 2005, nearly 3,000 commitments have been made and fulfilled, impacting the lives of more than 430 million people.

In addition to Camfed’s own announcement, Pearson, in partnership with Camfed, will publicly commit to offer BTEC qualifications to 5,000 Camfed Learner Guides in Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The 5,000 Learner Guides are young women school graduates who will return to school to teach and guide more than 150,000 girls to improve their attendance, retention and education in secondary school. Through the BTEC, a transferable vocational qualification, Learner Guides will acquire an important, internationally benchmarked qualification that provides a stepping stone into formal higher education and teacher training.

For more information, please visit www.camfed.org.

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About Camfed:
Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education, fights poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls and empowering women to be leaders of change. Since 1993, more than three million children have benefited from Camfed’s innovative education programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi. Camfed International in based in Cambridge, UK and Camfed USA is based in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.camfed.org.