* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In a unique program, Camfed, the University of Cambridge, and Goldman Sachs have provided young women in rural Africa with a way out of poverty: business and leadership training. In a context of extreme poverty, the 10,000 Women 10,000 Women Leadership and Enterprise Training Program equips recent high school graduates in rural Zambia with skills in financial management, entrepreneurship, and leadership, preparing them to launch new businesses. The program has been transformative, allowing participants to support their families and plan for the future with confidence.
“I’m a powerful Cama member!” That’s how Bridget, a young woman from Zimbabwe, describes herself over our evening meal. She’s part of Cama, the Camfed alumni association, and it’s a telling choice of words as power is a rare commodity where young women around the world are concerned.
Bridget wouldn’t always have described herself as “powerful.” Orphaned at a young age she lived with the second wife of her uncle and 14 other siblings and cousins. Her brothers and male cousins went to school but none of the girls did. Bridget doesn’t blame her uncle – he simply couldn’t afford the fees to send them all. At 13 years old she worked as a maid in Harare, starting at 4am each morning; cleaning, ironing, babysitting and preparing meals. The woman she worked for told her she was training her up to be an “experienced maid” and gave her clothing and food in lieu of a salary.
Luckily, Bridget’s family called her back to the village and with Camfed’s support she was able to return to school where she excelled, becoming first a prefect and then the head-girl. Today she is in the final year of her Business and Entrepreneurship degree studies at University. She chose the course because, as she says: “I want to establish my own business – it’s the fastest way I can bring a change to my own life and that of my family.” She’s a smart, confident woman with a clear sense of direction and recognition that hard work is key to success.
Bridget is adamant that her membership in Cama is critical to her being a powerful woman. As she tells me, “Together we are so much stronger than individuals!” Most of us know how influential networks can be in the business world – whether experiencing them as accepted members, or as those excluded from the archetypal golfing outings! Cama plays that role but the value of the network to vulnerable young women in Africa is even greater – it also offers a web of psycho-social support.
Cama members rarely forget the journey they have travelled and where they began. Shared values and a spirit of “paying it forward” is a characteristic I observe time and again. Bridget, for example, has a vision of growing a big business, but that objective stands alongside a plan to launch a safe place for street children to stay. She remembers how, when her father died, all her family’s possessions were thrown out on the street because they could not pay the rent. She is very aware of how close she herself came to being a street child and has tremendous empathy as a result.
Bridget’s vision reminds me of the “Great Ones” team, a group of young Zambian women from the 2008 Camfed 10,000 Women Programme. They wanted to provide a safe haven and learning opportunities for vulnerable children in Mpika and set-up a pre-school (pictured above). Last week, two-and-a-half years on from the launch, I visited the “Great Ones” pre-school and was delighted to see more than 50 young children all diligently practicing spelling, counting and singing with tremendous energy! The determination of the Cama managers of the pre-school has enabled them to overcome many challenges and continue to achieve their goals.
I could share many more examples of “paying it forward” by Cama members but I’ll just leave you with this fact – to date, more than 161,300 children in Africa have benefitted from local philanthropy by Cama members and other community partners. Powerful women indeed!
