The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a non-governmental
organisation (NGO) committed to the education and development of girls,
has touched lives and supported 428,717 students to go to school, since
its establishment in Ghana in 1998.
The support is in the form of the provision of educational materials and
basic needs, such as sanitary towels, to encourage the beneficiaries to
stay in school.
A total of 68,908 girls have also received bursaries from CAMFED and
have been assisted to go through junior and senior high school with full
scholarships from the organisation.
It has also organised educational programmes, including leadership
camps, to support poor and vulnerable children to complete their
education.
The National Director of CAMFED, Mr John Asibi Ali, at a meeting with
the media at Mankessim in the Central Region last Thursday, said CAMFED
also directed its operations to support the fight against poverty and
HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls and empowering women to be leaders
of change.
“CAMFED’s vision is to see a world in which every child is educated,
protected, respected and valued and assisted to grow up to stem the tide
of poverty.
ICT facilities
Mr Ali said CAMFED had also established ICT facilities to help give
opportunities to rural communities to study the subject, and had also
set up the Transition programme that allowed beneficiaries of its
programmes to transit to the world of work, further their studies and
support transformative leadership in rural Ghana, adding that CAMFED
would continue to support educational institutions with educational
resources to enhance the implementation of the free Senior High School
programme.
A programme officer with CAMFED, Mrs Candace Bentil, said the
organisation had impacted significantly on the lives of the individual
beneficiaries and communities.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of CAMFED, Mr Samuel
Asare-Danquah, also noted that CAMFED had trained over 2,000 teacher
mentors helping in the schools to get the best out of girls.
Beneficiary’s experience
In an interview, a beneficiary, Ms Deborah Boatemaa Asante, a third-year
student of the University of Education, studying Social Studies and
Political Science, told the Daily Graphic that without support from
CAMFED, her life would have taken a different turn.
She said her life was going on well until her mother, who was
single-handedly taking care of them, had an accident and became
crippled.
“After my senior high education, there was no support coming to me from
anywhere for me to continue my education to the tertiary level.
Being the eldest, I took up teaching in a private basic school to help take care of my three other siblings.
Life was not easy,” she stated.
Even though she had the required grades to further her education at the
tertiary level, she said, she worked as a teacher for four years and
used the money she got to support her mother and siblings, until luck
smiled on her in 2016, when she heard about CAMFED bursaries through her
church and she was offered a bursary to go to school.
Leadership camps
After benefiting from several leadership camps, Deborah, who is now a
member of CAMA, an alumnae network of CAMFED beneficiaries, said she had
gained more confidence that enabled her to speak in public and also
perform other leadership roles.
As part of CAMA’s activities, Deborah and other beneficiaries of CAMFED
visit communities to encourage students and pupils to stay in school.
Deborah and some of her friends spent part of their vacations at
Asarekrom in the Adansi South District in the Ashanti Region and
organised sensitisation programmes to encourage young girls to stay in
school.
“It is a great opportunity to help other less privileged children remain in school.
We do this by educating them on the importance of education. I am
grateful to CAMFED for the opportunity to continue my tertiary
education,” she said.