Anne Lonsdale: Education is essential – always and everywhere

Camfed International board member Anne Lonsdale is a passionate advocate for women’s education. As former Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and the President of New Hall – one of just two all-women colleges in Cambridge – she has helped many young women to achieve their personal and intellectual potential.

Anne spent much of her early career in Oxford, where she studied then went on to become a lecturer in Chinese. Later she was appointed as Director of External Relations. In 1993, she became Secretary-General of the Central European University, working in Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Moscow before joining New Hall in 1996. In 2004, she was awarded a CBE for her services to higher education.

Here Anne talks candidly about the importance education played in her own family’s life – and her continued commitment to girls’ education through her work with Camfed:

How did you get involved with Camfed?

One of the first occasions I was involved with Camfed was when Cambridge University was celebrating 50 years of women’s education in 1998. My college, New Hall, was too new to invite any alumnae from 50 years ago as it was only founded in 1954 – so we held a dinner instead for Camfed with the author Doris Lessing. A message was read out from anti-apartheid activist and politici

an Helen Suzman, which was very moving indeed. It seemed right for us to be celebrating the places where education for women i

s needed now – in Africa.

What motivates your passion for education?

My grandfather had to leave school aged ten to support the family and found work in a bakery – ideal, because he was paid and got to bring home the stale loaves as well, to help his mother bring up three sisters on her own. He treasured until he died the medal he was given for history when he left school and made sure his two daughters both had a good education at the local grammar school. One went to Cambridge University and the other, my mother, to Leeds.

My father’s father, who was a fairly wild character and spoke only Gaelic until he was 12, brought his family down to the streets of London where they ended up down and out on the Embankment. My father was saved from all this by a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital and then to Cambridge after the First World War and became a Professor of Physics.

So both families were transformed by education; hence my own belief in its overwhelming importance.

Why is educating women in sub-Saharan Africa so important?

“Educating women is the best way to resist poverty in some of the poorest communities in Africa.”

Anne Lonsdale, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge and Camfed International Board MemberEducation is important – always an

d everywhere. As a modern and international women’s college, New Hall has built up an enviable record of helping very able women to achieve their full personal and intellectual potential and go on to play an important and valuable role in tomorrow’s world. Camfed is playing a similar role in sub-Saharan Africa – helping to unlock the potential of young women through education.

Educating women is the best way to resist poverty in some of the poorest communities in Africa. Sending girls to school is the best way to make sure they have choices to have smaller, healthier families and it is also the best way to combat HIV and AIDS by making sure they have the information they need to prevent infection.

What makes Camfed so unique?

It’s very straightforward. Camfed is letting young women in Africa tell their stories rather than imposing its own. Many NGOs are not listening to what’s going on. They simply impose their own models and fly in expats to implement their programmes.

Camfed is different. Right from the beginning, founder Ann Cotton listened to the people she met and found out what they needed, working with some of the most marginalised young women in rural communities in Africa to make sure their voices were heard. And now these young women are in turn helping their communities out of poverty. It is extraordinary to see the effect of Camfed’s alumnae coming together to help each other and their communities. Through their own philanthropy, these successful young women are making sure that younger children have the opportunity to fulfil their potential too.

It’s very satisfying to see what can be achieved in some of the poorest parts of Africa and I have enormous respect for everything that Ann – and Camfed – has achieved.