Camfed collects Big Lottery grant

Camfed’s work with young women received a significant boost this summer when the Big Lottery Fund awarded a generous grant of £355,829 to support Camfed’s expanding programme in Tanzania. With these new funds, Camfed will be able to help 16,500 girls in the impoverished Iringa Region of Tanzania to complete primary school and go on to secondary school.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. Only six percent of children enrol in secondary school and the majority of girls fail to complete primary school. Thirty-nine thousand girls leave school every year because they become pregnant. Many girls in the Iringa Region leave for the nearest city to become domestic servants as soon as they finish primary school because their parents cannot afford to support them, let alone buy the school books and uniforms that will allow them to continue their studies.

With the Big Lottery Fund’s support, Camfed’s expanding programme in Tanzania will work with parents, teachers, school leavers and local leaders in Iringa to identify and raise awareness of the issues that stop girls going to school. The grant will allow Camfed to provide school uniforms, books and stationery that are vital to help girls from the poorest families stay in school.

Camfed will train teachers in Tanzania to improve the academic performance of their students and to provide social support to children suffering from the impact of HIV/AIDS in a country where there are an estimated 980,000 children orphaned by the disease.

The project will also link girls at primary school with a network of educated young women like Lydia Wilbard, who last month travelled to the United Nations to talk to the world’s First Ladies about her journey from poverty to university. These young women will act as role models and mentors to inspire and support girls in Iringa as they go through the school system.

“The project in Tanzania supported by the Big Lottery Fund builds on Camfed’s 12 years of success in tackling the deep-rooted causes of girls’ exclusion from school in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Ghana,” said Camfed’s Programme Officer Naomi Lovett. “Education is the key to unlocking girls’ potential to transform their rural communities.”