Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED),

an organization founded in 1993

to help eradicate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through the education of the most vulnerable girls and young women, won the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on Wednesday 2021, to which 29 candidates from 16 nationalities opted.

CAMFED (Campaign for Girls 'Education) is a pan-African movement that supports girls' education in more than 6,700 partner schools in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi and since its founding has helped more than 5 million boys to go to school.

Founded by Ann Cotton in 1993, this international consortium of nine entities in Africa, Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, has more than 330 employees and nearly 150,000 volunteers, who carry out field work in those five countries. They are among the poorest on the continent.

This organization is characterized not only by providing access to education for marginalized girls but also by

supporting their transition to adulthood and stimulating new business opportunities for job creation

and income growth in rural areas.

With a network made up of more than 157,000 alumni, the number of CAMFED beneficiaries continues to grow, as each of the former grantees sponsors and supports an average of three girls in their studies.

Among the programs led by CAMA (an organization created in 1988 by the first 400 CAMFED beneficiaries), the Learner Guide Program and the Agriculture Guide Program stand out, which have among their objectives to train small farmers in sustainable techniques to adapt to climate change and improve crops, provide nutritious school meals, protect biodiversity, and incorporate indigenous and innovative technologies to reduce pollution.

CAMFED

has also committed for the years 2021-2025 to provide primary and secondary education to another five million girls

, enable a safe path to seek vocational training and employment for 280,000 women, and support female entrepreneurs in the creation of another 150 000 jobs.

The candidacy, proposed by Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, had the support of Baroness Martha Lane Fox, Rector of the Open University (United Kingdom), among others.

The Cooperation is the sixth award to fail of the eight awarded annually by the Princess of Asturias Foundation after those awarded to the French writer Emmanuel Carrère (Letters), the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic (Arts);

the American journalist and writer Gloria Steinem (Communication and Humanities);

the Indian economist Amartya Sen (Social Sciences) and the Spanish Paralympic swimmer Teresa Perales (Sports).

After that of International Cooperation, only those corresponding to Scientific and Technical Research, on June 23, and Concordia, on June 30, will remain to fail.

Last year the award went to the World Alliance for Immunization and Vaccination

(GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance), the international consortium promoted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve access to vaccination for the most vulnerable children and groups of least developed countries.

Each Princess of Asturias Award is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró -representative symbol of the award-, an accrediting diploma, a badge and fifty thousand euros.

The delivery ceremony, which last year had to be moved from the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo to the Reconquista Hotel in the Asturian capital to adapt to a smaller format and without an audience due to the pandemic, will be held, as is traditional, in the month October.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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