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CAMFED IMPACT REPORT
Young women’s leadership
Cama — the Camfed Association — was founded
in 1998, in partnership with the first 400 secondaryschool
alumnae of the Camfed program, to provide
young women with a vital bridge from school into safe
livelihoods in a context where poverty, early marriage and
urban migration in search of employment poses threats to
young women’s health and security.
Cama is where some of the most exciting and rapid
advances in Camfed’s program are being made. Growing
rapidly at 34% per annum, with a current membership of
14,005, Cama has developed quickly into a powerful pan-
African movement whose members reinvest the benefits
of their education in their families and communities. The
leadership of educated and motivated young women is
showing significant benefits across communities. Cama’s
local philanthropy and activism has ensured that 118,384
children have been supported wholly by communities.
Cama members are also taking on managerial
responsibilities in several parts of the Camfed program,
such as the Camfed Seed Money Program that has enabled
6,084 young women to set up or expand their own
businesses. In addition Cama has trained:
• 10,329 young women in economic life skills;
• 770 young women Business Trainers; and
• 1,504 Community Health Activists, who reached 139,908
children and young people across 1,315 rural schools with
vital health information in 2009.
Cama members are also represented on Camfed’s
Community Development Committees (CDCs), where
they play a critical leadership role in developing and
implementing the Camfed program in company with local
government officers, chiefs, teachers, and other leading
members of the community. The inclusion of young rural
women in decision-making forums in highly traditional
communities is a strong indicator of systemic change.
Growing rapidly at 34% per annum since
2007, with a current membership of 14,005,
Cama has developed quickly into a powerful
pan-African movement whose members
reinvest the benefits of their education in
their families and communities.
14,005
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