Fourteen-year-old Mkude has no parents. He lives with his elderly grandfather in the Morogoro Rural District of Tanzania. In spite of his tiny frame, he earns just a few pence each day by carrying heavy loads and selling plastic bags to buy enough food to keep himself and his grandpa alive. (more…)

After Tukaeje Habibu struggled more than six miles to get to school in flimsy flip-flops, it was not unusual for her to be sent home from class because she didn’t have any shoes. Tukaeje had to leave the house at 5am each morning to get to school on time and – when she was allowed to attend classes – she didn’t return home until the evening. (more…)

When Camfed Director Lucy Lake first met Fiona Muchembere, she was working as a cleaner in an office building in Harare – despite having achieved some of the best school exam results in Zimbabwe. Her dreams of going to university seemed far beyond reach. But with Camfed’s support and encouragement, she defied the odds to become the first member of her rural community to go to university and is now a fully-qualified lawyer. (more…)

Camfed brought together traditional leaders from rural areas of Zimbabwe earlier this month to tackle some of the problems facing young women in their communities.Eleven chiefs from some of the most remote rural areas of the country pledged to become more active in protecting girls from abuse in their chiefdoms. The chiefs also recognised the importance of challenging some of the harmful customs that undermine young women’s health and safety – including marrying girls as young as 16 and virginity testing. (more…)

While Camfed gave one young woman from rural Tanzania the opportunity to share her story with the world’s First Ladies in New York last month, across the Atlantic another Camfed graduate from Zimbabwe was sharing a platform with politicians and policy makers in London. (more…)