CAMFED Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, is set to support five million girls to attend and thrive in school over the next five years.
CAMFED multiplies educational opportunities for girls in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where girls face acute disadvantage and empowers young women to become leaders of change.
It seeks a world in which every child is educated, protected, respected and valued, and grows up to turn the tide of poverty.
Madam Sally Ofori Yeboah, National Director of CAMFED Ghana, said these in her welcome address at a CAMFED Ghana Media Partnership meeting in Accra.
The meeting provided a unique opportunity to brief the media about the work of CAMFED and to discuss ways in which the media can advance its programmes and activities.
The event further provided a platform, through an open forum for the media to have a deeper understanding of CAMFED’s contribution towards girls’ education, women’s empowerment, as well as the SDGs 4 and 5.
Madam Ofori Yeboah said CAMFED would be leveraging the Multiplier Effect, whereby young women who have been supported by CAMFED through school provide social and economic support to the next generation of girls.
To achieve this goal, CAMFED will implement a three goal-prong approach; Anchor the strategy in the Multiplier Effect, where CAMFED will build the pipeline of girls who complete secondary school, join CAMFED Association and together step forward as activists and leaders for girls’ education. Secondly to scale the Learner Guide Programme where CAMFED will partner the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to roll out its flagship mentoring programme through which young women lead on providing social support to girls in school, and thirdly to invest in Enterprise Development where CAMFED will expand young women’s livelihood opportunities and in turn, their capacity to provide economic support to girls.
Madam Ofori Yeboah noted that CAMFED’s work is increasingly driven by the CAMFED Association, the ‘alumnae network’ of women who themselves received support from CAMFED at attend school and are now leaders for girls’ education in their communities.
“Currently 157,000 strong across Africa, the CAMFED Association is a growing social movement which is transforming the landscape of girls’ education and women’s empowerment in Africa”, she said.
According to the CAMFED Director, the “CAMFED Association members support each other through this network, using it as a platform to become agents of change within their communities and beyond.
“She said CAMFED recognises the need to forge partnerships to achieve set goals, for which reason the organization continues to seek and forge partnerships with a wide range of organisations.
“On the partnership and advocacy front, CAMFED, as a key player in the development sector, accepts the widely- held belief that in that sector, no single organization has all the answers. It takes collaboration and working partnerships with like-minded organisations to achieve our set goals and objectives”, she said.
Madam Ofori Yeboah noted that the collaboration and partnerships CAMFED has developed over the years and are in tandem with the organisation’s goal of forging mutually-beneficial working partnerships that provide a range of resources, expertise, data, and knowledge that contribute to effective programme delivery.
“The goal is to ensure that the interest of our clients, the young women we work for, is adequately served”, she added.
She applauded the Mastercard Foundation for their continuous partnership with CAMFED over the years for the implementation of the Innovation Bursary Programme, The Scholars and Transitions Programmes, and now the Young Africa Works programme.
MEDIA PARTNERSHIP
Madam Ofori Yeboah said CAMFED values and cherishes the role that the media play in the socio-economic development of any society.
“It is in the light of this background that we have worked to build a mutually –beneficial strategic partnership with the Ghanaian media as partners in development”, she said.
Participants, including BA TV, Nimdee FM and Cheers FM were taken through CAMFED’s new strategic plan, key performance indicators and the Young Africa Works Programme.
SCOPE
CAMFED works in five countries in Africa namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi. In Ghana, CAMFED operates in 38 districts across the Northern, North East, Savannah, Bono, Bono East, Western, Eastern, Greater Accra, Ashanti, Upper East, Upper West and Central regions.
IMPACTS
CAMFED Ghana has since 1998 directly supported 599,899 students to go to school.
90,449 girls have also been supported through secondary education with full CAMFED scholarship while 2,400 Teacher Mentors have been trained to support girls in 1,189 CAMFED partner schools in the country.
84,846 businesses started by CAMFED Association members have received CAMFED loans, grants or training over the period.
41,761 young women from rural communities are members of the CAMFED Association, out of which 12,642 members have been trained in business skills.
$5,677,412 monetary values of resources have been contributed by community members and CAMFED Association to support children to go to school. 656 community initiatives have been undertaken by local stakeholder groups.
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CAMFED Ghana to support 5m girls to attend school
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