A crash course in changing the world.
saving the planet, one girl at a time
Social entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, it seems. So many people are doing amazing work in Africa through young, creative organizations like Kiva, Ushahidi, Maker Faire Africa, and many others. But I found myself drawn to, inspired, and completely charmed by a sixty-year old English woman, Ann Cotton, who has devoted her life to the pursuit of a simple, compelling idea: that educating young women can save the world.
Ann Cotton founded CAMFED, the CAMpaign for Female EDucation, in 1993 by running bake sales and raising money to support the education of 32 girls in two of the most impoverished districts of Zimbabwe. Since then, CAMFED has supported the progress of hundreds of thousands of young women in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania, and Cotton has been widely recognized for her work.
Here's Ann Cotton speaking with Global X of the Skoll Foundation's SocialEdge program. I especially like the part where she talks about her hopes for the future of 2017:
Ann Cotton founded CAMFED, the CAMpaign for Female EDucation, in 1993 by running bake sales and raising money to support the education of 32 girls in two of the most impoverished districts of Zimbabwe. Since then, CAMFED has supported the progress of hundreds of thousands of young women in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania, and Cotton has been widely recognized for her work.
Here's Ann Cotton speaking with Global X of the Skoll Foundation's SocialEdge program. I especially like the part where she talks about her hopes for the future of 2017:
How I would love to see the world in 2017: a place of justice, a place where we really have tackled poverty. And one of the ways of doing this, one of the best ways of doing this is by investing in the education of girls. Every boy and every girl, every human being is born to a woman. And just imagine, if every human being in the world was born to an educated woman, who had the confidence to help her children, who had the knowledge to help her children.I hope to be able to make contact with Ann Cotton and CAMFED, to share what we are doing here in EVOKE and to find the common threads that could lead to collaboration between our communities.
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Comment by Simon Brookes on February 24, 2010 at 10:44am -
A huge theme developing for me since becoming part of the Evoke Network is the amount of amazing work that people, like Ann Cotton here, are already doing on the ground to help those in desperate need. I am humbled and massively encouraged by the commitment and passion of people like this. I am also inspired to try and do much more myself. Thanks for sharing this Gene.
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Comment by Josh Judkins on February 28, 2010 at 10:39am
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Thanks for bringing Ann's work to our attention, Gene! One of the things I find most inspiring about her story is how it began in such a contained and achievable way - helping a small number of people for the right reasons. I look forward to looking into CAMFED more & would love to see a 2017 that looks like Ann's vision.
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Comment by Deborah Cazden on March 10, 2010 at 9:57am -
What an amazing woman :-) Thank you for sharing her story!
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