Join this cause - http://www.causes.com/camfed/ and a Camfed donor has agreed to send a girl to elementary school for a month.

Then, for every friend you get to join the cause, the donor will donate enough for another month.

Convince 12 friends, and you’ll fund an elementary school student’s education for a whole year.

We need your help to reach our goal of 5,000 supporters so please, join today: http://www.causes.com/camfed/

To mark World AIDS Day, please forward this article to as many friends and networks as you can. Invite them to make a donation to Camfed through the Big Give website from 9am on Monday morning to double their investment in girls’ education.

Time is of the essence because the £1m pot will shrink rapidly. And once the £1m has been spent, the matched funding will end – so it’s crucial to get the donations in as early as possible on Monday, 1 December (World AIDS Day).

Girls’ education is recognised as one of the best ways to combat poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa, so what better way to mark World AIDS Day than encouraging everyone you know to make a double investment in girls’ education?

What to do next

Please give the gift of education today

Tell a friend about this initiative

Find out more from the Big Give website

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.

How, you might ask, does girls’ education help the environment? Environmentalists and development experts alike agree that one key factor in preserving the health of the planet is educating girls and creating economic opportunities for women. Studies show that educated women marry and bear children later, and have smaller, more sustainable families: young women who have completed secondary school, for example, have 2.2 fewer children than those who have not.

Education promotes sustainability in other ways as well. Research indicates that educating girls boosts farm yields, and diversifies marketplaces—both of which are considered critical steps toward ending the current world food crisis.

Earlier this year, Camfed joined forces with a visionary nonprofit called Global Footprint Network to promote the importance of educating girls in a resource-constrained world. GFN has developed a tool to measure the human impact on the planet so that governments can make more informed choices about how we use our limited resources. In December, members of the Global Footprint Network team will share their knowledge with high school graduates in rural Zambia, when Camfed and Goldman Sachs launch their 10,000 Women Certificate Program in Young Women’s Leadership and Enterprise, which will help young women develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they need to become leaders in their communities. Watch for news on this exciting initiative in the coming months.

Camfed is one of 18 top charities that will be working with Girlguiding UK’s 580,000 members to raise awareness about a range of local, national and global issues in a project called Changing the World. (more…)

Read the full story here:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a21dca4-b1da-11dd-b97a-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

The aspiring journalist from Edinburgh was chosen from hundreds of entrants across the UK in the Guardian International Development Journalism competition, organised in partnership with Camfed and seven of the UK’s other leading development charities.

Elliot’s article, which focuses on girls’ education in Tanzania, will appear in the Guardian in November.

“Seeing Camfed’s work has made me realise what can be achieved by a charity that is not afraid to think carefully and seriously about what it is doing and how best to go about it,” said Elliot, who spent seven days visiting Camfed’s programmes in Tanzania.

“I hope I’ve learned a bit more about development,” he said. “I certainly have a better understanding of just how much there is to learn and have had many of my views strongly challenged. I’ve also seen how powerful feminism in Africa can be – and glimpsed how important it might become as a driver for change.”

Elliot, who is studying English at Cambridge and is a past editor of the Cambridge student newspaper Varsity, is now more convinced than ever that he would like to pursue a career in journalism. He is one of 16 finalists in the competition: eight in the amateur student category, and eight in the freelance professional section.

Phoebe Greenwood, a freelance journalist from London, was chosen in the professional category to report on Camfed’s work helping young women in the Samfya District of Zambia to achieve economic independence.

The 16 finalists’ articles – and the name of the two overall winners in each category – will be published in the Guardian in two supplements on Saturday, November 22 and Monday, November 24.

The UK government’s Department for International Development helped to fund the competition to raise awareness about development issues.

Douglas Alexander, International Development Secretary, said: “This competition has motivated a new generation of journalists to write about issues relating to global poverty.”

Find out more about the competition

“A good sign that an organization is doing something right is if you arrive in a remote village two hours late and are met by a riotous crowd of delighted women who march you up a hill singing songs about how pleased they are to see you. This was my experience when I arrived at Ng’ang’ange with Camfed’s Operations Manager, Naomi Rouse, three bumpy hours’ drive from Iringa in Central Tanzania. We were there to meet with local members of Cama – a network of young women supported by Camfed. “I have always wanted to know”, said Remina, Cama chair for the village, “whether this Naomi was a mother or a grandmother. Now, I see she is my sister.”

I came into the trip with some serious reservations about what development organizations like Camfed could really achieve. Back at home, I still find development a bit problematic, yet I also find myself setting up my first and as yet only charitable direct debit – and it’s to Camfed.

What struck me most about Camfed’s work in Tanzania was not the size of their achievement, but its depth. Their numbers are certainly impressive; through their Safety Net Fund, bursary program and Cama’s work helping school leavers start small businesses, Camfed is helping a lot of people in Tanzania. I wanted to find out what this help really means to people. I find the idea of “making a difference” slightly facile. I prefer a more qualitative question: “what kind of a difference?”

I asked a lot of people what they thought was so important about girls’ education – teachers, pupils, parents, officials from the Department for International Development (DFID), people in the Ministry of Education. Perhaps the best answer I received was from someone called Ma Rutta, who helps to identify girls who need Camfed’s support in Iringa. She said: “If a girl is educated she can make her own decisions rather than just letting her husband make those decisions for her. She can know ‘this will benefit me’ or ‘this will not benefit me’ and make her decisions accordingly. That’s why here we say: ‘Education for liberation!’”

Of course, it’s vital that Camfed’s work helps to address key development issues – HIV infection rates, child healthcare and gender disparity in education. I found Ma Rutta’s explanation so interesting because it describes, in a very simple way, how these challenges are best engaged with on the most human of levels – our thoughts, feelings and decisions.”

Presenting the award, Sarah Brown said: “Ann is a remarkable woman, whose modesty belies her immense achievements. Through sheer determination and perseverance, she has enabled hundreds of thousands of young girls in Africa to receive a proper education, transforming their lives and the lives of their children. And through the passion of her campaigning, she has helped ensure that the issue of girls’ education is now firmly and permanently on the agenda of the world’s leaders.”

Ann Cotton joins an impressive roster of previous award recipients, including Jasvinder Sanghera, who campaigns for victims of forced marriage, domestic violence and honour killings; and Zimbabwean human rights crusader Thabitha Khumalo.

“I am honoured to be among the remarkable humanitarians who have been recognised with this award,” said Ann Cotton. “The injustice of girls’ exclusion from education is a wrong that must be put right if the world is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Girls, quite simply, have a right to education and in securing that right can transform their families and nations.”

Women of the Year Window to the World Awardees are nominated by the Women of the Year Council, which includes President Joan Armatrading, Chairman Gill Carrick, Eleanor Angel, Maureen Lipman, Mary Nightingale, Doreen Lawrence, Virginia Wade, Gill Sinclair, Ann Barr, Professor Trish Morris-Thompson, Glenys Kinnock MEP, Teresa Graham and Kay Brock.

Singer/songwriter and Women of the Year President Joan Armatrading said: “Each year it is an honour to invite women to join the Women of the Year Lunch and recognise them for the extraordinary things that they do. Our thanks and tributes go to Ann, who continues to push boundaries and obstacles in her path for progress, understanding and change. She is a true inspiration to us all.”

Hear Ann’s reaction to receiving the award on Cambridge’s Star Radio:

Read the Cambridge Evening News’ coverage of Ann Cotton’s award.

Find out more about the Women of the Year Lunch

Read more about Camfed’s Ann Cotton.

Charity Navigator rates charities based on two areas: organizational efficiency, which shows how efficiently Camfed is currently using donors’ support; and organizational capacity which shows to what extent Camfed is growing its programs and services over time.

Charity Navigator’s mission is to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by assessing the financial health of America’s largest charities.

Read Charity Navigator’s full evaluation of Camfed USA.

Women and education: the heart of economic thinking