Fiona Mavhinga is a founding member of CAMA (Camfed Association), the pan-African network of young women leaders for girls’ education. CAMA’s current membership of 33,100 will grow to more than 130,000 over the next few years as a direct outcome of Camfed’s support for girls through secondary education. These young women are transforming opportunities for young people in their communities, and leading the way in ensuring that the next generation of girls goes to school. Last year alone, the young women in CAMA, working with their communities, directly supported 263,655 children to go to school.
Fiona is leading the development of CAMA as an empowered network with unrivalled expertise in what works in girls’ education. As young women who themselves once experienced exclusion, they are uniquely placed to understand the barriers to girls’ success, and to design, deliver and monitor innovative programmes that improve girls’ retention and progression through school, as well as their transition to independence and leadership.
As a lawyer, Fiona is instrumental in supporting young women to engage with government authorities to tackle gender-based violence and discrimination, and achieve wide-scale change. The child protection policies and guidance Fiona has developed have been recognised as best practice, and adopted by the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and by Ministries of Education. Fiona’s speaking platforms include the Skoll World Forum and the 2014 One Young World Summit. Fiona also spoke at the roundtable with Michelle Obama in London in June 2015, featured here.
