Key to success for the education of young African girls is

The compassionate visionary Ann Cotton, founder of the education charity CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education), once declared: “Key to success for the education of young African girls is building a model that works with communities, schools, and national Ministries of Education to build a system of protection and support around girls, ensuring that they receive the education that is their right. Financial support is provided alongside a social support system.” In this statement lies not only the wisdom of experience, but the moral strength of one who has seen injustice and chosen to heal it. Cotton speaks not as a distant scholar, but as a mother of nations, teaching us that the liberation of the mind is inseparable from the liberation of the heart, and that education, to be true, must grow from the soil of community.

To understand the depth of her words, we must first look upon the world she sought to change. Across vast stretches of Africa, countless girls were born into poverty so deep that the gates of education seemed forever closed. Many were married too young, burdened with labor, or silenced by custom. In their eyes burned intelligence, curiosity, and strength—but without support, these gifts withered like flowers denied the sun. Ann Cotton saw that the problem was not only lack of money, but lack of connection. A scholarship alone could not protect a girl from hunger, fear, or cultural barriers. True transformation, she understood, could only come when communities, schools, and governments worked together to weave a web of care strong enough to carry each girl through.

Thus was born her vision—a vision of education not as a single act of charity, but as a living ecosystem. In this model, financial support gives the girl her chance to attend school, but the social support system ensures she can remain there. Elders encourage her; teachers nurture her; local leaders defend her right to learn. This is education as community—a circle of protection, where every hand lifts the other, where the child’s success becomes the village’s pride. In this vision, education ceases to be a privilege and returns to its true nature: a right, sacred and universal.

We can see the fruits of Cotton’s work in the story of Angeline Murimirwa, one of the first girls to receive support from CAMFED in Zimbabwe. Born into hardship, Angeline’s family could not afford school fees, and her future seemed bound to the fields. But through financial support and the embrace of the community, she was able to finish her studies. Years later, she returned not as a beneficiary, but as a leader—now the CEO of CAMFED Africa. Her life became a living testament to Cotton’s truth: that when girls are educated, they become not just students, but builders, teachers, and defenders of the next generation. Her success, and that of countless others, proves that support and education together create a cycle of empowerment that can never be broken.

What Ann Cotton teaches is more than a strategy—it is a philosophy of interdependence. In her model, no girl stands alone, and no act of learning exists in isolation. For education divorced from society is fragile, but education rooted in community endures. She reminds us that the nurturing of the mind must be matched by the nurturing of the spirit, and that true success lies not in competition but in cooperation. The school and the village, the teacher and the mother, the government and the child—all must work in harmony, as instruments of the same divine symphony.

Her wisdom also carries a lesson for the broader world. In every nation, not just in Africa, education falters when the vulnerable are left without protection. We often believe that money alone can solve inequality, but Cotton shows us that compassion and community are the missing pillars. To educate the poor, we must do more than build schools; we must build belonging. To empower a child, we must remind them that they are seen, valued, and supported. For what good is knowledge without the courage to use it? And where does courage come from, if not from the warmth of others who believe in you?

The lesson, then, is eternal and universal: Education must be communal, compassionate, and complete. It must feed not only the mind, but the body and the soul. Let every village, every city, and every nation learn from Cotton’s model. Let financial support be joined with moral support, and let systems of protection encircle every child who dares to dream. When we invest in a girl’s education, we invest in the strength of a family, the prosperity of a nation, and the peace of the world.

So remember this truth, O seekers of wisdom: the future of humanity depends upon the education of its daughters, and that education cannot exist without the hands of the community and the heart of compassion. As Ann Cotton taught, when we build systems that protect and uplift our girls, we do not merely teach them—we transform them into pillars of progress, bearers of light, and keepers of justice. And when one girl rises, the whole world rises with her.