Penelop directing her film. (Photo: Camfed)

The ability – and courage – to tell our own stories is one of the most powerful tools we possess. But in some of the world’s poorest communities, men and women – but especially women — can struggle to make their voices heard. To amend this power imbalance and to help amplify their voices, Camfed – a charity that provides education for young girls in rural Africa – began training some as filmmakers.

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Make a donation in honor of your mother, and send an eCard to let her know.

For the mothers of students supported by Camfed in rural Africa, education has a special significance. Most were forced by poverty to drop out of school when they were young, limiting their opportunities. But they have converted that experience of exclusion into a passion for ensuring that their own children are educated.

“I was a very bright child, but my parents could not afford to send me to secondary school,” says Onesta Paul, the mother of two children in the Iringa district of Tanzania. “Since then, I have lived to support my children to go to school no matter what.” Onesta’s daughter Ester is acutely aware of her mother’s dedication. “My mom has worked so hard with the little she had to put me through primary school. She has always dreamed of me going further than she was able to go. I want to make her proud by becoming a doctor, so I can give back to her as she has given to me.”

It’s a sentiment that parents around the world share: the hope that their children will have better lives than their own. This Mother’s Day, give your mother a gift that honors the love and dedication of mothers everywhere: send a child to school in her name.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Camfed!

Christine Caldwell, left, and Sue Kumleben, right.

Four intrepid runners took part in the London Marathon this weekend to raise funds for Camfed. Between them, the fab four ran more than 100 miles and raised over £3,000 to help send girls to school in Africa.

One of the runners, 50-year-old Sue Kumleben, was the fourth woman to cross the finishing line in her age group – after taking up running just two years ago. Sue achieved an impressive time of just over three hours and 13 minutes. And she has raised an equally impressive £1,300 for her efforts so far.

“I started running in order to run a marathon,” says Sue. “It was my birthday present to myself for starting my 50th year. (Don’t ask what I give other people!). ”

A mother of three teenagers, Sue ran her first London marathon in 2010 in support of the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Much to her surprise, she loved both the running and the fundraising. And when she earned a good placing for her age group, she decided to run the London Marathon again in 2012. This time she chose to support Camfed, which dovetails well with her own work as a parent coach in London. As she puts it: “we teach the parents; Camfed teaches the kids”.

Sue has some words of advice for anyone thinking about pulling on their running shoes for Camfed in future.

“For anyone who considers the sheer insanity of running a marathon, what can keep you going through the proverbial wall is all the support you get and give in fundraising,” she says. “It’s really that simple, and that important.”

Also running for Camfed on Sunday were Christine Caldwell, a university lecturer from Stirling, and husband and wife team Tom Aldred and Claire Thornhill from London. Tom completed the race in an incredible 2hr 36mins, placing 97th overall in the men’s race, while Christine, a keen runner, took part in the London marathon for the first time and finished within four hours. She chose to combine the experience with raising money for Camfed as education is a cause very close to her heart. Between them they have raised over £1,600 for girls’ education in Africa.

A big thanks to Sue, Christine, Tom and Claire for supporting Camfed!

• If you would like to pull on your running shoes for Camfed, we still have places left in the British 10K London Run on Sunday, July 8th. It’s a fantastic opportunity to run along some of the Olympic marathon route just days before the London Olympics begin. Drop us a line at info@camfed.org if you’d like to join the Camfed 10K team!
• Or if Sue’s story has inspired you to run a marathon, we also have places in the New York marathon on November 4th. For more details, send an email to nycmarathon@camfed.org.

In today’s Huffington Post, Skoll Foundation CEO Sally Osberg responds to a recent column on social entrepreneurs in The New York Times by David Brooks. Brooks refers to social entrepreneurs’ “refreshingly uncynical” approach to social change, but criticizes them for neglecting to engage in the political process. Not so, Osberg responds, citing Camfed as an example of an organization that forges robust partnerships with governments, particularly around the issue of child protection.

Read the Huffington Post article.

One of 2,500 Mother Support Groups partnering with Camfed

That’s where Mother Support Groups come in. Across 2,500 Camfed partner communities, mothers and grandmothers – many of whom were unable to attend school themselves – are devoting tremendous energy to income-generating projects and advocacy so that the children in their community are able to complete school.

Since its inception in 2007, the Pepukai Mother Support Group in the Chiredzi District of Zimbabwe has expanded from a group of ten to nearly two dozen members. Camfed provided the group with basic business training and $100 in seed money to get them started – and then they took the reins, developing five small enterprises over the next four years.

With their start-up grant, the women began baking and selling buns. They used their profits to purchase four goats and start a small butchery, which provided them with enough revenue to then purchase 100 chickens. The group continues to expand their enterprises, and they now weave mats and brooms, and grow carrots, okra, onions, and leafy greens.

Today, the Pepukai Mother Support Groups is sending eleven children in their community to school, as well as donating school supplies to their local high school. They have also had success at a policy-level: by partnering with Camfed’s Child Protection Committee they have helped ensure that children who were forced to work can return to school.

The MSG’s treasurer, Mrs. Rangarirai Musasanuri, says she has acquired valuable business skills through her involvement in the group – but what she values most is the passion it has sparked for community engagement. “I have learned that a child is everyone’s child,” she says. “I have also learned that we do not have to wait for donors to give us aid, but that we ourselves can work with our hands and become donors. It’s important to help each other in the community because it makes life better.”

Mr. Mutihoto, left, galvanized community support to send Taurai, right, to school

Taurai was an infant when he lost his left hand and leg. With no one to help her look after her baby, his mother left him, swaddled in blankets, when she went to fetch water. When she returned she found her son on fire. Unable to treat the most serious burns, the doctors amputated Taurai’s left hand and leg.

Taurai might never have had a chance to enroll in school if it weren’t for Mr. Mutihoto, the Deputy Head of a primary school in the Nyanga province of Zimbabwe where Taurai lives. In the ten years that Mr. Mutihoto has known Taurai, he has built a support network around him – a team of community members who provide him with housing, care-giving, equipment and school expenses.

When Taurai was nine years old, Mr. Mutihoto noticed that the boy was not enrolled in school, although he was of school-going age. Given Taurai’s physical challenges, the idea of getting Taurai to school each day was overwhelming to his mother, who was supporting five children on her own. “I was very sad to see a young boy out of school just sitting at home, so for two years, I campaigned to get him to school,” says Mr. Mutihoto. “What motivated me is love for humankind and sympathy for his situation.”

Mr. Mutihoto eventually arranged for Taurai to stay with another teacher and his wife, close to the primary school, so that getting to school would be manageable for Taurai. With financial support from his grandmother, Taurai began classes and he quickly excelled. “I believe that Taurai did well because of the encouragement he received from other people,” says Mr. Mutihoto. “He was driven to perfect his schoolwork to prove to the world that disability is not inability.”

One challenge remained, however: as Taurai got older, it became difficult to carry him from place to place. Mr. Mutihoto approached Nyanga Hospital and requested that they donate a wheelchair. “They were very responsive,” he says. “In May 2006, the wheelchair was made available, and his peers took turns of their own free will to push the wheelchair for him.”

When Taurai became too heavy to be pushed in a wheelchair, school administrators engaged a volunteer to carve a wooden crutch for him. “When the crutch got too old, I carved another crutch using the design of the old one,” says Mr. Mutihoto. “The second time the crutch was not useable his guardian, Mr. Chisuko, made another crutch following the same design.”

When Taurai finished primary school, Mr. Mutihoto determined that the best option was to send him to a boarding school, where he wouldn’t have to travel to class every day. But boarding school expenses were beyond the reach of the community members who had been helping him. In March 2012, he wrote a letter to Camfed, making the case to support Taurai’s secondary school education. To see Mr. Mutihoto’s handwritten letter, click here.

“When I heard that Camfed had agreed to support Taurai, I was quiet for a long time,” says Mr. Mutihoto. “I was speechless, my joy was overwhelming. When I broke the news to everyone who had been working to help Taurai over the years they, too, cheered.”

Camfed’s assistance has inspired the community in Nyanga to reach out to other vulnerable children as well. “The support given to Taurai gives us comfort to help every child who needs us without fear of failing to take them further,” says Mr. Mutihoto. “We are all so happy for Taurai and know very good things will come out of this chance.”

In March 2012, in response to Mr. Mutihoto’s letter, Camfed began supporting Taurai to attend boarding school. “I’m happy being in school as no child here discriminates against me” says Taurai. “They all love me and support me in many ways. I want to be an accountant after school. This support will help it come to pass.”

Traditional Authority Symon's wife addresses the other royal couples

In that spirit, last year, Angeline Murimirwa, Executive Director of Camfed’s Malawi office, invited 23 traditional authorities and their wives from all of our partner districts in Malawi to convene in Blantyre. The goal: to share thoughts around child protection, with particular attention to early pregnancy and child marriage.

Kimberley Sevcik, Camfed’s Media Relations Manager, talked to Angeline about what transpired.

Kimberley: Why is it important in the context of what Camfed does to meet with royal couples?

Angeline: As an organization, we seek to work with everybody who touches a child’s life. Traditional authorities are particularly important because they are the moral custodians in their communities. They’re the opinion leaders and they establish the community values. They hold the power to get children into school.

Also, if you want community involvement in a program, you must start with the traditional leaders.

What was your objective in calling this meeting?

The key challenge in Malawi around girls’ education is early marriage and pregnancy. We wanted to ask traditional authorities for their support in preventing those things, and in getting children into school.

You invited the traditional authorities’ wives, which was unusual. Why did you include them?

Some of the wives have experienced the issues we gathered to discuss, such as dropping out of school because of pregnancy or early marriage, so we knew they would take an interest. We wanted them to recognize that even though they are not crowned chiefs, they are informal leaders in their community and women respect and model themselves after them.

Inviting the wives was unprecedented. Some of the traditional authorities did not bring their wives on the first day. Then on the second day, once they felt they could trust us they called their wives to join them.

How did you earn their trust?

When we go into a community, we don’t compromise their power or tell them what we think they’re doing wrong. We’re respectful of their authority and of the efforts that they are making. And we ask a lot of questions. We started by asking the leaders what they want for their children. The responses we heard were: “We don’t want children having children. We want our young people to be proud of themselves. We want our own doctors, our own teachers, we want our own children leading us, not people coming from the outside.”

Then we asked them what they think will help children achieve that: “Do you need more information, more resources, more skills?” We also said, “If you want doctors, you have to send your children to school!”

Did you discuss sensitive issues?

Yes, we talked about traditional practices that hurt children and how, as leaders, they have a role to play in stopping them or fueling those practices. It was a two-way conversation – the authorities and their wives shared stories about what goes on in their communities, and when we heard about something that was harmful to children, we would troubleshoot by asking a lot of questions. By the end there was a change in the tone of discussions, and some of the leaders were condemning the practices on their own.

What were the most important outcomes of the meeting?

The traditional authorities all seemed to agree, by the end, that their wives have an important leadership role to play in their community, particularly when it comes to keeping girls in school. The wife of traditional authority Symon said, “Now I can go back and set an example of what every woman can do to keep children in school and happy.”

But I think the most important thing that happened is we opened a door. Traditional authorities in Malawi now trust that we genuinely care about what happens to their children, and that is what’s going to allow us to take these conversations to another level and to start creating change.

I became a guardian for two young girls, Jescar and Prisca, seven years ago. The sisters were in early adolescence when their father and stepmother set off to search for work outside of their district on the coast of Tanzania, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. For six months, the girls waited for their parents’ return, living in their rented house until the landlord forced them to leave. With nowhere to go, their neighbors sent them to the police station, where they encountered my husband, a policeman. Seeing the girls’ desperate state, he gave them some money for food. That day, we agreed to take them in.

When Jescar and Prisca came to our house, they had given up. They did not understand why they were alone, far from their parents. I work as a teacher mentor at a Camfed partner school in the Rufiji district, counseling vulnerable students who come to me to discuss their challenges. The training in mentoring and counseling that I received from Camfed for this position prepared me very well to care for these two frightened girls. I decided to make friends with them so that they could be close to me and trust me.

Jescar is now in high school, and plans to become a journalist

I am very proud of the girls and what they have overcome, and I feel happy that I was able to help them re-build their lives. Now whenever I see a vulnerable child, I do what I can to help them. These are our children, and we better do something to support them.