Life-changing educational support


Although Ghana’s education system has since been reformed, until recently most high schools were fee-paying. Many were also far from rural communities and required students to board, creating further costs for overstretched families.

For Fadila, who grew up in Savelugu in northern Ghana, the expense almost ended her education entirely.

As well as covering fees, the support connected her to a “sisterhood” of young women from similar backgrounds known as the CAMFED Association. The Association is Africa’s largest and fastest-growing peer support and leadership network, comprising CAMFED graduates who now spearhead their programmes.

Through the network, she learned practical skills, like managing finances and preparing for interviews. “It really improved my self-esteem and encouraged me to keep going,” she said.

The charity’s intervention came later for Jemimah. Now 29, she dropped out of school at 14 to help her mother run a tiny catering business – which was the family’s only source of income. “I dreamed of going back but I didn’t know when it would happen,” she said. “For people like me, that was normal.”

When a free high school opened nearby, Jemimah seized the opportunity to resume her studies. She then met some CAMFED-supported students and eventually secured funding for university. Defying the odds to reach Higher Education felt “like breaking a ceiling no-one before me had imagined could be broken”.

CAMFED supported all three women through university in Ghana and later guided them to the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, which enables talented, service-oriented young people to pursue higher education at partner universities around the world, and covers the full costs of Masters study at Cambridge.

Each now wants to use what they have learned at Cambridge to help other women and girls in similar situations. Before Cambridge, all three trained as CAMFED ‘Learner Guides’ – peer mentors who deliver a life skills and wellbeing curriculum to girls and boys, with the aim of helping marginalised girls, in particular, stay in school and transition to secure livelihoods afterwards.

The role extends beyond the classroom, into the community. Jemimah, for example, mentored about 70 students and supported initiatives to help girls navigate the poverty-related pressures and harmful gender norms that often force them out of education. “I wanted to be the mentor for them that I never had,” she explained. “Most importantly I wanted them not to give up on education. Where you come from does not define where you go.”

Francisca has now set up an initiative called the ‘Smooth Transition Help Centre’ in Ghana to support school leavers into further study or employment. Both Fadila and Jemimah hope to go on to work in roles addressing educational inequalities. “I am the first person in my community – probably my district – to go to Cambridge,” Fadila said. “I hope to help girls in similar situations realise their dreams.”

An expanding model for girls' education


Informed by research at the University of Cambridge’s Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, the Learner Guides model operates in several countries. In Tanzania, the approach is being scaled up by the government,  deploying both male and female “Life Skills Facilitators”, in a similar role.

A new study by the REAL Centre and the University of Dar es Salaam points to clear benefits, with the approach being perceived by stakeholders as bringing important gains for students and schools, including improved confidence, wellbeing, attendance, and greater resilience against challenges such as early pregnancy and truancy.

However, the report adds that core elements from CAMFED’s model – such as training young graduates from a disadvantaged background, and strong community engagement, remain central to sustaining these benefits at scale.

Embedding CAMFED’s approach in government systems, however, also comes with risks. The research suggests that Tanzania’s “gender neutral” commitment to involving male and female mentors, while laudable, could inadvertently overlook severe barriers that girls, specifically, face. These include early marriage and gender-based violence – issues that CAMFED’s female Learner Guides tackle directly.

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the REAL Centre, said: “The Tanzanian Government’s adaptation of the CAMFED programme shows that there is enormous potential to benefit students across the continent – but we must remain intentional about gender and social inclusion as such programmes get scaled up. The achievements of our Ghanaian students here at Cambridge provide compelling evidence of why that matters.”