The world has proved enough times that it can scale cruelty and violence. Compassion and kindness can and must be scaled to create a world of justice for children. Ann Cotton Read Quote
Camfed graduates are active in their villages using their skills and resources to improve as many lives as possible. They are teaching financial literacy to marginalized women and bringing vital health care information to rural schoolchildren. Through example, they are demonstrating the power of philanthropy. Ann Cotton Read Quote
To expose the hardships experienced by children who are deprived of the right to attend school, Camfed has produced a series of films about educational exclusion. ‘Every Child Belongs in School’ provides a glimpse into the lives of children who have been forced by poverty to leave school at a very young age and take a difficult life path. Ann Cotton Read Quote
All children everywhere deserve the opportunity that is unlocked for them by education. Ann Cotton Read Quote
I am honoured to join education innovators like Ms. Vicky Colbert, Dr. Madhav Chavan, and Sir Fazle Hasan Abed as the fourth WISE Prize for Education Laureate. I accept this prize on behalf of the million girls Camfed is committed to supporting through secondary education. Ann Cotton Read Quote
When I first worked in Zimbabwe, I was a complete novice. I was doing a study, and I continued to learn more and more through the years. And where I have learned most is in the village, from the communities. Ann Cotton Read Quote
Poverty is more than a material experience; it’s a psychological state as well, one that is infused with anxiety. And decision-making is very complex because every decision you make has an impact on your future and survival. Ann Cotton Read Quote
The prevailing view was that girls were outside of school because of the resistance of families to their education. But when I visited a local village, what everyone told me – the chiefs, the parents, the children – was that girls weren’t in school because it was the boys that had a better chance of getting paid work in the future. Ann Cotton Read Quote
If you can’t send your daughter to school when you know it will help her, you feel a sense of failure, and you feel that failure deeply. Ann Cotton Read Quote
In the family pattern, men support boys and women support girls, and because women have far fewer financial resources, there is less money to invest in girls. Ann Cotton Read Quote
