You've all heard the story about girls' education. It goes like this: To end poverty, educate a girl. To tackle climate change, educate a girl. To solve the health crisis, educate a girl.
It seems like girls' education is the closest thing we have to an actual silver bullet. There's just one problem. When you send a girl to school without radically reshaping the support structures around her, you're just putting a diploma in her hand. If she gets that far. And slotting her right back into a world of poverty and inequality. What's more, as one of the few survivors of a system stacked against her, she'll feel isolated and overwhelmed by all of the expectations of how her education will somehow change everything. I remember primary school in Zimbabwe
where a teacher would tell his top pupil to hide in a toilet whenever the inspectors came because they would send her home for not paying her levies. Her experience of isolation, crouching barefoot in a torn dress over a pit in a concrete cubicle only intensified when she received a scholarship to secondary school. One of the few to get this chance, she was wracked by guilt. Her own mom had sold two buckets of maize to buy her a blanket and a toothbrush for boarding school. That meant her family would give up many meals to see her through. How was she ever going to repay this investment? This girl often thought of dropping out.
Imagine suffering survivor's guilt just for being in school. Imagine feeling the pressure, not just to address your own family poverty, but to be the solution to the world's problems. To change her trajectory and reap the benefits of girls' education, we have to lift the burden placed on the shoulders of each single girl, the pressure to beat the odds on her own and to suddenly make the world a better place for everyone when they do.
I'm excited to tell you there is a growing sisterhood of educated young women in Africa who are doing just that.
Thank you.
(Applause)
They know firsthand the complex web of barriers to girls' education that extends well beyond the school gates. They have felt the effects of poverty and hunger, child marriage and teen pregnancy. And now they are ensuring that vulnerable girls have a sister to lean on in the classroom and throughout their lives.
Part of the Campaign for Female Education, CAMFED, these women spearhead a model that helps girls thrive in school and equip them with the skills and support network they need to succeed. Armed with agency and confidence, girls change the trajectory of their own lives and together tackle the structural inequality that holds women back. We provide girls with financial and material support for school basics like decent clothes, notebooks and menstrual products in a context where one month's supply can cost as much as 20 meals. We built and nurture a social support network around girls, community committees that safeguard children, parents who cook school meals and build safe toilets, chiefs who tackle child marriage and lift women's voices up. Crucially, the graduates who join our sisterhood return to the classroom to accompany girls on the journey through school to independence.
We've done this for decades and know how successful it is. These sisters are leaders who lift each other up and ensure that no girl has to carry the weight of poverty and expectations on her own. When you have a job interview, a sister will lend you a dress. When you apply for university, a sister will talk you through the jargon. You know, when you move to a different district, a sister will introduce you to her networks. And when you face challenges in your business, a sister will loan you money and ask that you pay it forward to another. When you have a sick family member, a sister will show up in the hospital. In some cases, we have so many sisters show up, they have to be turned away.
(Laughter)
Finishing school is just the start of a challenging journey for a rural girl. It's the success of women who have gone before her, who succeeded before her, that show her what's possible. And as more girls graduate, that journey becomes easier.
This is not just about a tool to solve the world's hardest problems. It's a story about communities joining forces in a model that sees girls' education as the route to agency and leadership. And the benefits are clear to see. Our CAMFED association is now more than a quarter of a million young women strong.
(Applause)
And more than 56,000 members hold local, national and international leadership positions. But the most important thing about this sisterhood is our multiplier effect. The average member financially supports the education of at least three more girls. And as the sisterhood flywheel spins faster and faster, young women sit at decision-making tables, change gender norms and ensure millions more girls benefit.
I know the impact this will have on vulnerable girls because I was one of them. Remember that girl hiding from the inspectors and worrying how to pay back her mom's sacrifice? That was me. I was one of the first girls supported by CAMFED in Zimbabwe. And today, I'm the CEO of the very organization that sent me to school.
(Cheers and applause)
And what keeps me sane and energized during the toughest of times is the sisterhood I co-founded, which sits at the heart of our programs. It’s a safe space where you can show up as you are and leave better than when you came. The kind of space all of us need to thrive.
So believe me when I tell you, girls' education is the silver bullet. But only, only, if you do it right.
Thank you.
(Cheers and applause)
