On Saturday, November 22, the Guardian published the first round of finalists’ articles from its International Development Journalism competition, which sent 16 journalists to different corners of the globe to examine the root causes of poverty. Among the articles featured was a story by Cambridge University student Elliot Ross, focusing on the issues that prevent girls from attending school in Tanzania, and on Camfed’s work to ensure that girls have access to education. Read Elliot’s article here.

Guardian editor Sue George also wrote about Camfed’s work in Tanzania in her introduction to the special supplement.

Camfed is one of eight charities that collaborated with the Guardian on this groundbreaking competition, which challenged amateur and professional journalists to investigate whether the eight Millennium Development Goals are on track to halve global poverty by 2015. The competition, which was supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), drew more than 400 applicants.
On Monday, November 24, the Guardian published the second round of finalists’ articles, including a piece by journalist Phoebe Greenwood which examines the economic challenges faced by women in rural Zambia, and highlights Camfed’s efforts to unlock opportunities for women who are born into poverty. Read Phoebe’s article here.

You can help end poverty!

In spite of world leaders’ promises to halve world poverty by 2015, many of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) they agreed to are still way off track.

• More than 1.4 billion people are still living on less than $1.25 a day;
• 70% of these people are women;
• 75 million children are still missing out on a primary education; and
• 57% of these are girls.

Camfed and our partners in the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition are urging supporters to download an action pack called “Going for Goals”.

In the pack, you will find a “Going for Goals” postcard that you can send to your local MP, urging them to put pressure on the government:

• to meet its own MDG commitments;
• to use its leadership to encourage other countries to do the same
• to make sure that the world’s trade system is fair for people everywhere.

As the global credit crunch threatens to undermine the slow progress that has been made so far towards achieving the MDGs, your support is more vital now than ever in making sure that the world’s poorest don’t get poorer.

Download the “Going for Goals” action pack now and become part of the solution in the fight against global poverty.

Camfed Zambia this year launched an ambitious child abuse prevention initiative, funded by Irish Aid. Camfed’s Zero Tolerance to Child Abuse Campaign breaks through the culture of silence surrounding child abuse, and calls on all sectors of Zambian society to put an end to it. Through this new initiative, Camfed is collaborating with the Ministry of Education to develop a National Child Protection Policy, as well as reaching out to educators, families, law enforcement officials, and politicians to establish safe and effective systems for reporting child abuse, and to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Barbara Chilangwa, Camfed Zambia’s Executive Director and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, describes a status quo that is recognized internationally: “Too often, when children report abuse, people say, ‘They are children, we cannot believe them’. We want to convey to the community that children must be heard when they speak up, and that there are structures in place for reporting abuse.” The objective of the campaign’s community outreach, says Mrs. Chilangwa, is to make communities aware that they have the power and the responsibility to take action against child abuse cases. (more…)

Author Lisa Grainger spent three months travelling through Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana, collecting stories that have been passed down by generations of gogos, or grandmothers. The result, Stories Gogo Told Me (Penguin, 2008), is a collection of 40 traditional African tales that Lisa gathered from village storytellers, farmers, and rural teachers. On her journey, she met some of the girls Camfed is supporting through school.

“Having taken the stories from villages, it didn’t feel right to profit myself, so I decided to donate proceeds from the book to Camfed,” explains Lisa, who grew up in Zimbabwe. “Camfed’s work appealed to me because I had seen firsthand how much money went directly to educating girls in Africa.”

Lisa visited a rural school in Zimbabwe and met 56 girls whose education is being funded by Camfed. She also met two young women who, with Camfed’s support, are studying social sciences at university in order to help their own communities. Every one of them said that without Camfed, they would not have been educated. “None of these girls had ever seen a book of traditional African stories, and they all begged me for a copy,” says Lisa. “I know that there are hundreds more girls across Africa who will benefit if the book sells.”

Camfed would like to thank Lisa enormously for her generosity, and to urge supporters to buy this wonderful and evocative book.

Stories Gogo Told Me is available at WHSmith.

Listen to an interview with Lisa Grainger on BBC Radio 4

The leading champion for girls’ education in Zambia has been named as the new Executive Director of CAMFED Zambia. Barbara Chilangwa is highly respected across sub-Saharan Africa for implementing wide-ranging education reforms to help more girls get into school during her tenure as Zambia’s Permanent Secretary of Education. (more…)

Matildah Mwamba always knew she wanted to make a difference. Growing up in Zambia’s copper mining belt, she used to pretend to be a teacher – giving lessons to her five younger brothers and sisters and other children during the holidays. Matildah took her passion into the classrooms of rural Zambia, working as a primary teacher for 17 years. But over the years, she became despondent about the lack of educational opportunities for girls. She decided it was time to help all those girls who had never had the chance to be educated because their families were too poor to send them to school. (more…)

During this year’s Global Action Week for Education, 24th – 30th April, thousands of activists across 110 countries delivered an urgent message to their governments – education is the key to ending poverty – and Camfed was amongst those in Zambia to campaign for increased access to education. (more…)