Martha Lane Fox: Giving something back

We interviewed lastminute.com co-founder, internet pioneer and Camfed board member, Martha Lane Fox to find out why she chose to get involved with Camfed.

”It costs £75 to support a girl through secondary school for a year… The amounts of money seem so tiny, especially for us living in London, yet they can literally mean the difference between life and death.”A poster girl for the Internet boom, Martha Lane Fox was on the front of every magazine and newspaper in the late Nineties. After studying at Oxford University and working briefly as a management consultant, Martha launched the Internet company Lastminute.com in 1998 with a former colleague. She left the company five years later in December 2003, cashing in £4.6 million of shares in March 2004 to go backpacking. A few months later she was involved in a horrendous crash on holiday in Morocco that nearly took her life.

After a slow recovery, Martha set up her own private karaoke business called Lucky Voice in 2005. She is a non-executive member of Channel 4’s management board and a non-executive Director of Marks & Spencer. She is a strong advocate for prison reform, serving as a trustee for the charity Reprieve, as well as campaigning on behalf of girls’ education in Africa with Camfed.

Why do you support Camfed?

I’ve been very lucky. I had a near death experience after a very serious car accident in Morocco and yet the resources that I banked up from Lastminute.com saved my life. This has allowed me to start focusing on Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education, and some of the other things in my career. The accident has highlighted the importance in my life of wanting to give something back. And the charity, Camfed, is a very obvious place to focus my energies, because it’s doing something that allows girls in Africa to take control of their lives, and offers them the resources to help them out of poverty.

How does Camfed help to produce young entrepreneurs?

By supporting girls through school in some of the poorest parts of Africa, Camfed is transforming their life opportunities – giving them the chance to become doctors, lawyers, teachers and businesswomen. Once these girls have left school, Camfed also helps them to set up their own small businesses. As soon as they become economically independent, they can also support other children in their rural communities through school – as well as supporting their own children in the future. So these young entrepreneurs become philanthropists – setting in motion a virtuous cycle that is really helping to break the chain of poverty in some of the poorest rural communities in the world.

What difference is Camfed making in the fight against AIDS?

As well as fighting poverty, Camfed’s work is also helping in the fight against AIDS. Educating girls is a driving factor in reducing HIV infection in rural communities because it empowers young women. Education not only teaches them about birth control but it gives them the confidence to choose their sexual partners and to stand up to abuse. It gives them the opportunity to make decisions that could end up saving their lives.

What can supporters do to help?

It always amazes me that it costs so very little to give a girl these life-changing opportunities. It costs £75 to support a girl through secondary school for a year. That’s probably as much as I’ll spend going out this weekend. The amounts of money seem so tiny, especially for us living in London, yet they can literally mean the difference between life and death.

I’ve just read a story of a lovely girl called Abigail, who lives in a village in rural Zambia. Her parents died, she went to live with her grandmother, and she would definitely have been married off and gone to work on a farm if Camfed hadn’t sponsored her through primary and secondary school. Now she’s got a degree and can look after her grandmother, rather than the other way around. Her whole life and horizons have been changed. The impact is so immediate – and 90 pence out of every pound donated to Camfed goes directly to girls like Abigail.