Penelope
Samfya District, Zambia
By the age of 14, Penelope Machipi had lost both her parents, been forced to drop out of school because of poverty, and was responsible for the upbringing of her siblings. Without Camfed’s support, she would not have finished high school.
“Without education I would be nowhere,” says Penelope. "Education gave me confidence and made me a more responsible person.
In 2006, Penelope joined Camfed’s film-making workshop in her community in northern Zambia, and her story—which uncovers property grabbing and the challenges faced by orphans—was chronicled by a group of her fellow women filmmakers. “By telling other people how I lived, I felt I was helping them,” says Penelope. “I was strong so other people could learn.”
When Penelope participated in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program in Young Women’s Leadership and Enterprise, she learned how to use a computer. She now manages the first computer center of its kind in Samfya and helps others learn computer skills. In honor of the improvements she made in her community, Penelope won the prestigious Goldman Sachs-Fortune Global Women Leaders Award in 2009.
“I want to achieve so many things!” she says. “I want to establish a powerful business and employ more women. I want to go to college so I can become a school teacher. I want to help girls have more self-esteem and confidence. And of course I want to make sure the children in my family go to school.”
Mary
Machinga District, Malawi
Currently at one of Camfed’s partner schools supported by the Safety Net Fund, Mary loves to learn. Her favorite subject is science, and she’s determined to become a nurse. “I want to help people who are suffering, especially those in my home area. The doctors and nurses who treat us are people we don’t know from the cities. I want to work to change this, so we can help ourselves in our community.”
Mary is one of six children, and her father lives in South Africa, earning money as a domestic worker and sending it home when possible. Paying for school is challenging. Despite the lack of funds, Mary is determined to finish her education.
“As the oldest in my family, I want to be an example to my younger sisters and brothers,” she says. “I want to be the first girl in my community to really go far!”
She says that if she had an unlimited pot of money she’d use it to pay for all the children in her community to go to school.
Talent
Chikomba District, Zimbabwe
When Talent was 8 years old, her father died. When she was 10, her mother left her and her two siblings in their rural village to look for work. She never returned.
Talent’s aunt took the children in, but she struggled to earn enough money as a shopkeeper to send them all to primary school. When Talent graduated from middle school, her aunt told her she couldn’t afford to send her to secondary school. “She tried to comfort me,” says Talent, “and suggested that I work for a year to save money so I could pay my own way the following year.”
But Talent knew this was a temporary solution. What would she do after her first year of school when her money ran out?
She was devastated. “I wanted to change my life through education. I didn’t want to continue to struggle, being poor all the time,” she says.
One week before classes started, the principal at Talent’s school told her she’d been chosen to be supported by Camfed. All her fees, from her soap to her bus fare, would be covered. “The next day, I didn’t speak to a soul,” she says. “I spent the whole day praying and thanking God for this amazing news.”
With Camfed’s support, Talent graduated from secondary school and was accepted into medical school at the University of Zimbabwe. She’s now in her second year and doing well.
“I don’t want to disappoint those who are supporting me,” she says. “Now that I’m in medical school, I have faith the gates to success are wide open. I just have to walk through them.”
Awabu
East Mamprusi District, Ghana
Seventeen-year-old Awabu’s life changed completely when her grandfather took her out of school and forced her to get married. An orphan, Awabu had little say in the matter.
“Although my new husband allowed me to complete my high school education, he refused to let me go further, even after I gained admission into the government’s Community Health Training Program,” she says. “He believed I wouldn’t return to the marriage once I left.”
But when Cama, the Camfed Association, offered a program in her community for women to become health activists, she leaped at the chance. “With the Cama Community Health Training Program, I feel like I’m doing what I was always supposed to do,” she says.
Her role as a community health trainer is to educate people about prevention and treatment of diseases like HIV/AIDS. She speaks on topics ranging from teenage pregnancy to substance abuse. She also uses the opportunity to encourage girls to complete their education.
“My goal is to help people lead better, healthier lives,” she says. By helping others, she’s grown into a confident young woman. “I used to be very shy. But now I’m comfortable speaking to more than 50 people.”
Marian
Nanumba North District, Ghana
Marian is only 18 but she dreams big of becoming a doctor and then a professor. Aspiring to set an example by being the first educated girl in her family, Marian strongly believes in the power of education to bring people out of “darkness.”
The youngest of 10 siblings, Marian’s education was disrupted when her parents, poor subsistence farmers, divorced in her final year of middle school. “My mother left home and my father gave me to my aunt. She was not interested in my schooling; I used to miss classes because I had to help her sell used dresses, palm oil and groundnuts. I would stay up late at night frying groundnuts to sell.”
When she didn’t pass her final exams due to her long absences from school, her mother took her back in. The next year, Marian was able to focus on studying and she passed her exams, earning her entrance into secondary school.
But despite her mother’s efforts, Marian could not afford the secondary school fees. She remembers her mother crying out of helplessness.
Camfed, however, changed everything. After she found out Camfed was going to support her, Marian says, “My mother and I were so excited and happy. Because of this support, I’m going to work hard and fulfill my goals.”
Cindy
Samfya District, Zambia
Cindy was born into a wealthy family, but by the time she was four, her parents had both died of AIDS. She moved from one extended family member’s house to another, forced to do household chores instead of attending school.
“One day, I worried that this would just go on and on. I wanted to go back to school,” she says. So she left, and went to live with another aunt, who supported her dreams of getting an education. Then Camfed began supporting her.
Now Cindy is nearly at the top of her secondary school class, and she hopes to become Zambia’s chief justice one day. “I want to provide justice for all,” she says.
“It is not the end of the world to be an orphan,” she says. “It will not be the end of me. I’m a girl who has seen lots of things, and I haven’t lost my determination.”
