In her foreword, Graça Machel writes, “This book celebrates the achievements of some wonderful young women, whose dignity and strength shine through their every word and photograph... The common thread through all their lives is the power of education. If their stories teach us anything, it is that the struggle for education for all must be won, and that when it is, other struggles – against poverty, war, ignorance and disease – will become easier to win.”

Camfed’s priority is to get girls back into school by tackling the root cause of girls’ exclusion – poverty. The organisation works with village chiefs and local teachers to find the children who are out of school and offer their parents the opportunity for their daughters to attend – an offer that not one family has refused in the more than ten years’ experience of the ongoing project.

Camfed began by supporting a group of thirty-two girls in rural Zimbabwe; ten years on, it supports 150,000 in Zambia, Ghana, as well as Zimbabwe. Thousands of young women have completed their education with Camfed’s support, among them doctors, lawyers, teachers and businesswomen.

Come is the day when our voices can he heard from the top,
producing an echo that awakens all those who are asleep.

“My classmates laughed at me, but I did not lose hope because I wanted to do my best and be an example to my family as I was the first girl to be sent to school in the whole family.”
- Spiwe Rare

“I was not used to being given a list of things to do but I was soon going to learn. I worked for a lady and in the morning as she left for work she would give me the schedule for the day. I did all the work and sometimes the task was beyond one person. I used to do all the household duties and to feed the children and as if that was not enough, she would come home in the evenings and yell at me. That was the hell I was in. It is very hard to work for a person who does not appreciate you. I tried by all means to please my employer, but she never appreciated it.”
- Wanzirayi Meke

AIDS, AIDS, what do you want?
You kill people
You have taken my father and now my mother
What shall I do in the world without parents?
I don’t have food to eat
I don’t have clothes to wear
AIDS, AIDS, what do you want?
You are finishing us all.
- A child’s poem

“Only later, when I was doing my fieldwork as a district coordinator, did I realise that my experiences were like training to me. I have become so committed to helping other people in situations like mine. I have grown strong and now share my background with children in school.”
- Charity Masango