Explorations In Leadership
natalia.na
ChristineClark.pptxAnn Lesley Cotton Educating girls for a progressive society
Christine Clark
ITGS-400
Background
Ann Cotton is described by Horsefield (2012-2018) as :
Talented Social Entrepreneur: Founder of the successful organization “Campaign for Female Education” (CAMFED).
Compassionate Teacher: focusing on girls excluded from mainstream education.
Passionate Activist: who traveled to Africa to discover the pressing need of education among young girls.
Rationale
Ann Cotton raised awareness of African families financial limitations that kept girls out of school.
To this day, girls education is still undermined on the African continent.
Girls' education and gender equality are a fundamental human right.(camfed.org)
Thesis Statement
Ann Cotton exposed the true barrier of illiteracy as poverty with the pressing need to provide education for young women in rural Africa to lead a quality life.
Aim
This review of literature aims to demonstrate how Ann Cotton’s significance in promoting women’s education in third world countries to transform their lives for extraordinary social changes in their nations.
Main points
Ann Cotton’s historical overview of her activism work through the following three areas:
Alleviating poverty through channel funding
Bridging the gap of gender inequality in Africa
Empowering young girls by providing education
Alleviating poverty through channel funding
Camfed.org asserts its mission:
Poor parents share the desire to educate their children.
Ann Cotton works to transform this desire into action with joint effort of these families.
The Organization’s strategies promote virtuous cycle to cover essentials, school related costs and fees, and extending to clothing and more.
Alumni Network: A commitment to access peer support, training and financial resources for economic independence.
Alleviating Poverty through channel funding The Shaping of Ann Cotton’s passion
World Innovation Summit for Education awarded Ann Cotton the 2014 Wise Prize for Education Laureate and introduced the winner as:2
Ann Lesley Cotton, a Welsh entrepreneur and teacher by profession is a passionate activist at heart.
Upon traveling to the African continent the first time in 1991, she discovered the true reason that kept girls uneducated as “Poverty”.
However, realizing that boys were the chosen ones for school, girls were left with no chance to education.
The reality of gender inequality and poverty in Africa motivated Ann to fervently advocate to solve these issues through her mission.
Alleviating Poverty through channel funding Ann Cotton’s mission
Ann Cotton is the founder of CAMFED (Campaign For Female Education).
She identified the key reason for girls poor school attendance rate in Africa as severely limited resources. (Camfed.org).
The goal of her mission is to replace the existing cycle of poverty and inequality with a new cycle of empowerment and opportunity.(camfed.org).
Ann Cotton founded Campaign for Female Education in 1993 with the mission to eradicate poverty from rural Africa through the education of girls.(Camfed.org).
Educated young girls grow up to becoming empowered women and leading the country to incredible changes. (Camfed.org)
She managed through CAMFED to provide channel funding for her school operating costs and student fees as part of alleviating poverty operation.
Alleviating Poverty through channel funding Financing schools
Ann Cotton created a program specifically designed to meet the needs of young girls.
She proposed her plan to the government ministries, chiefs of villages and rural community residents.
Ann Cotton’ s specific education design caught global interest and succeeded with the generosity of scholarship recipients.
CAMFED wins WISE education Prize
globalpartnership.org
The supporters are convinced that the way to Economic and Social stability is to support the Education of Women.
Alumni and volunteers comprised of teachers, businesswomen, nurse, doctors etc.. formed an association to be role models for girls
(Hall, 2015).
Hall (2015) describes the following channel funding steps:
Empowering girls by providing education
Making Girl’s Education a National Development Priority (Gordon, Marston, Rose, & Zubairi, 2019).
Female teachers have an important role to play in improving educational quality and access for girls.
Increasing the number of women teachers is often cited as a major strategy for promoting girls 'education.
(Haugen, Klees, Stromquist, Lin, Choti & Corneilse, 2014).
A strong evidence suggest that as the number of women teachers grow, do does girls’ enrollment. (Herz & Sperling 2004;Rihani, 2006).
Parents in the Sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to send daughters to school with female teachers. (Herz & Sperling 2004;Rihani, 2006).
Empowering girls by providing education Ann’s Vision
Ann Cotton has focused up to date on five African countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi. (Camfed.org).
Ann’s vision was not only to get rid of poverty but to empower young women to be strong leaders of their communities and inspire their entrepreneurial potentials. (Camfed.org)
Powerful women in the communities contribute to reshape a progressive society. (Camfed.org)
CAMFED-Campaign for Female Education
Twitter.com
Empowering girls by providing education The Campaign statement
Ann Cotton insists that CAMFED supports without imposing.
Ann’s organization strictly recruits staff inside Africa.
CAMFED does not send outsiders to tell children what to do.
(Theguardian.com: Ann Cotton: feb28,2015)
You can’t raise the aspirations of a child then leave them hanging.
Poverty can’t be solved by a project.
Poverty is solved by relationships and collaboration.
Not coming in and making new structures then putting our name over it then moving on.
CAMFED
Uitripledaf.org
Empowering girls by providing education CAMFED Model
Ann Cotton’s model and strategies that sets CAMFED apart from other organizations promoting virtuous cycle. (camfed.org)
Empowering girls by providing education Achieving social transformation
Young African women follow the CAMFED model
Once they graduate from CAMFED they join CAMA (Camfed Alumni Association).
These young female leaders pay it forwards by contributing back into the community by being role models, well trained teachers to spread the knowledge and confidence to the next leaders.
(Camfed.org)
Bridging the gap of gender inequality
Achieving gender equality involves a substantive shift not only in the proportion of girls and boys in school. (Gordon, Marston, Rose & Zubairi, 2019)P.3
It involves a deeper dimensions of societal norms of both genders being valued and respected equally in education. (Gordon, Marston, Rose & Zubairi, 2019) P.385
Ann worked with Grassroots leadership and community initiatives to increase awareness about the value of girl’s education. (Gordon, Marston, Rose & Zubairi, 2019)P.386-394
Bridging the gap of gender inequality Understanding Gender Equality
One way to promote gender equality is by increasing girls and women in local leadership, which proves to be influential in changing community attitudes and aspirations for girls. (Gordon, Marston, Rose & Zubairi, 2019) P-395.
Adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world.
Girls are the most likely agents of change, but often invisible in their societies and to our media. (Sensoy, Marshall. Gender & Education. May 2010, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p300-301)
The panel of American foreign policy interest stressed the paramount importance of education in bringing about necessary changes in the mind-set of people. Without education, it would be almost impossible for democratic principles to find solid and enduring roots in the Muslim world. (Hoveyda, American Foreign Policy Interests. Jul/Aug2015, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p216-224)
Bridging the gap of gender inequality Ann Cotton’s Revelations
Ann Cotton, founder and president of CAMFED attributes its success to the staff:
“Remember that everyone on the team is a servant of the cause, in our case, girl’s education and young women’s leadership in Africa”.
She adds: “Never take your eye off the ball and have faith in your institution”.
Skoll-CAMFED
Skoll.org
Ann Cotton’s tips for future leaders
Ann Cotton’s definition of a social entrepreneur:
“Someone who witnesses the pain and struggle in the lives of others and is compelled to act and work with them”.
Ann Cotton’s advice for tomorrow’s social entrepreneurs:2
“Be greedy for social change and your life will be endlessly enriched”.
Ann Cotton dedicates Wise Prize to 1 million girls
Theirworld.org
Conclusion
Ann Cotton inspires us today to continue raising the awareness of gender inequality due to the lack of education opportunity for girls.
Her actions have proven successful through her strategic educational model to raise funds for her organization CAMFED.
She convinced contributors who gathered many to support generously for the cause and countless female media figures volunteered to be role models.
References
Cotton, A. 1993. CAMFED: Campaign for Female Education. Camfed.org
Gordon, R., Marston, L., Rose, P., & Zubairi, A. (2019). Achieving the promise to leave no girl behind in commonwealth countries. Round Table, 108(4), 383–398.
doi:10.1080/00358533.2019.1634890
Hall, H. (2015). Charity’s Scholarships Help African Girls Pursue Their Life Goals. Chronicle of Philanthropy, 27(6), 16
Haugen, C., Klees, S., Stromquist, N., Lin, J., Choti, T., & Corneilse, C. (2014). Increasing the number of female primary school teachers in african countries: Effects, barriers and policies. International Review of Education / Internationale zeitschrift für erziehungswissenschaft, 60(6), 753–776.
doi:10.1007/s11159-014-9450-0
References
Hoveyda, F. (2015). Summary of the Roundtable on Democratic Reform and the Role of Women in the Muslim World (Held on March 29, 2004). American Foreign Policy Interests, 37(4), 214–228. doi:10.1080/10803920.2015.1080076
McVeigh,T. (2015). Ann Cotton: Education millions within Africa by inspiring sustainable change. Theguardian.com. (Feb 28 2015).
Sensoy, Ö., & Marshall, E. (2010). Missionary girl power: saving the “Third World” one girl at a time. Gender & Education, 22(3), 295–311. doi:10.1080/09540250903289451
WISE Summit, (2014). Qatar Foundation: Unlocking human potential. Creativity at the heart of Creation. Wise- Qatar.org
