We’d like to recognize the pioneers and leaders in the field of international Girls’ Education. These people are our inspiration and we learn new things from them everyday. There are so many individuals and organizations doing such great work to help young women reach their potential and spread awareness – together we are all participating in a worldwide, unstoppable movement.
Is there anyone that you think should be added to add to this wall? Just write us at hello@africangirlscan.org and tell us about them!
Malala Yousafzai
The Malala Foundation
Without a doubt, Malala is the face of Girls’ Education around the world. She is so articulate and inspiring – and funny too! If you ever get the chance to hear her speak in person – don’t miss it! We also admire Malala’s family for sacrificing family time and sharing her with the rest of us as she travels non-stop in her quest to help other girls. She even popped in at a school in Denver that has immigrants and refugees from 60 countries. She graduated from Oxford University with a Philosophy, Politics and Economy degree and we’ll be watching one day when she becomes Prime Minister of Pakistan!
Michelle Obama
Global Girls Alliance
Intelligent, elegant, spirited and putting her position to good use, Michelle simply shone in the final years of her husband’s term in office. When she decides to support an issue, she gives it everything! The organization and marketing behind Let Girls Learn (music videos and all) showed that her skill set is wide and varied. A short film about her dedication to and travel for the cause of Girls’ Education, “We Will Rise,” aired on CNN. On International Day of the Girl in 2018 (10/11/18), Michelle announced the launch of the Obama Foundation’s Global Girls Alliance “to break through barriers by lifting up grassroots leaders already working in communities and by rallying support for these girls in every way that we can. Because the future of our world is only as bright as the future of our girls.”
Melinda French Gates
The Gates Foundation
Melinda brings all her technical and business background to bear on responsibly allocating the foundation’s vast resources to find solutions to the world’s key problems – and educating the rest of us about them. She is most interested in using data to evaluate the results of the many poverty eradication projects that good hearted people implement around the world. What is the most efficient and impactful way of doing things? And how do people use (or waste) their time all over the world? (carrying water…) If you are not following her on Facebook, do it today. She shares a steady stream of interesting and educational topics. She is also a mom to three, and clearly she views that as her most important job.
Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
Half the Sky
This couple’s best selling book, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” was published in 2009 and became popular among book clubs, and even required reading for entrance to some colleges. The book, and the subsequent Mini Series, was the first introduction for many of us to the topic of gender inequality. As a reporter for the New York Times, Nick continued to travel to every corner of the earth to report on stories of “horror and hope,” making us aware of events, people and places we might not have heard about. He believes in “solutions journalism” and has a vibrant Facebook page with live Q&A with guests. Sheryl is also an incredible public speaker – watch her TED Talk!
Emma Watson
HeForShe
Oh, Hermione Granger, you have come a long way. You were always a strong and magical female character, but look at you now! Many know Emma as an actress and model, but she is also an activist. She was appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in 2014 at just 24. She helped launch the UN solidarity campaign “HeForShe” which calls for men around the world to take action against negative inequalities faced by women and girls (including access to education) and gave this breakthrough speech. In fact, Malala told Emma that she decided to call herself a feminist after hearing the speech. In 2016, Emma started a feminist book club, and left feminist literature and notes for others to find in the London and New York subways.
Ann Cotton
Camfed
Ann is one of the true pioneers in Girls’ Education and her impact has been phenomenal. In its nearly 30 years, the organization she founded, Camfed, has directly supported 4.8 million children to attend primary and secondary school in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi. It all began when the Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist went on a research trip to learn why girls enrollment at school in rural areas was so low. The reason was clear and simple: poverty. It’s not that poor parents did not want their daughters to attend school (with limited resources, boys were prioritized.) Camfed has a huge network of graduates that are active members in the Camfed Association, supporting the next generation of girls.
Devotha Mlay & Monica Swai
Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative (GLAMI)
Devotha and Monica are Directors of an innovative organization which started by offering scholarships and evolved to running two value added after-school programs. In the last 20 years, over 10,500 Tanzanian girls at 25 Partner Schools have benefitted from these programs. The Kisa Project offers a leadership curriculum for girls in their last two years of high school. Scholars identify problems in their communities and recommend solutions. 98% of Kisa graduates have advanced to university in a country where less than 5% of women make it that far. Binti Shupavu provides younger girls the life skills and support they need to stay in and complete secondary school. Tanzanian Mentors (who are mostly Kisa Alumnae) teach the curriculum and act as role models. AfricAid is the US non-profit that raises funds for GLAMI.
Jessica Posner Odede & Kennedy Odede
The Kibera School for Girls
This couple are shining examples of community organizers and social entrepreneurs. Growing up in the Kenyan urban slum of Kibera, Kennedy started a grassroots organization in 2004. Jessica met Kennedy while on a study abroad program and together they founded Shining Hope for Communities in 2009. SHOFCO has since impacted 2.4 million people in 17 urban slums. One project is the slum’s first free primary school for girls. Meals, healthcare, uniforms and enrichment programs are provided. Parents or guardians are required to work for 5 weeks at the school, so that the entire community is invested in the girls’ education. We like that this is a love story too! Jessica and Kennedy’s memoir “Find me Unafraid” was published in 2015.
Rose Busingy
Meeting Point International
Rose is our first local Ugandan honoree on this page, and we can’t image anyone with a bigger heart. Rose graduated as a nurse and midwife from Nsambya Hospital in 1990. She received additional training in Italy and became an expert in counseling HIV/AIDS patients. She founded Meeting Point International in 1992 and has served thousands of vulnerable people in the slum areas of Kampala with compassion. The organization, which has both paid staff and many volunteers, has three areas of focus: healthcare, livelihood support, and education. 1,100 students currently receive scholarships for school fees. A new high school for 400 students in Kampala was funded by the sale of 32,000 paper bead necklaces. What’s amazing about Rose is that she tries to connect with each one of the beneficiaries on an individual level.
Devin Hibbard & Torkin Wakefield
Street Business School
Devin and Torkin, along with their friend Ginny Jordan, began the social enterprise BeadforLife in 2004 and the paper beads became a path out of poverty for many Ugandan women. The real “product” though was the innovative entrepreneurial curriculum taught to the program members. These lessons are now packaged under the name Street Business School. BeadforLife closed, but SBS powers on. After six months of training, female entrepreneurs in the program increase their income from $1.35/day to $4.19. This allows them to provide their families better nourishment and send their children to school. Most importantly, SBS collaborates with other NGOs around the world to spread this knowledge and aims to reach 1 million women and their 5 million children by 2027.
Cinderella Anena
Global Health Corps Fellow
Cindy Anena is an incredible role model for girls in her native Uganda and all over Africa. She grew up in the far North, an area traumatized by the LRA, and lost her single parent Mom at age 15. She stepped up to care for her siblings, not missing a beat in her own education and earned degrees from Makerere University and University of Leeds. She is now a Global Health Corps Fellow (organization founded by the younger Barbara Bush), connecting with other young community organizers around the world. She received training in civic leadership as a Mandela Washington Fellow in 2015 and has been involved with many community based organizations, including co-founding Young Acholi Girls Initiative.
Best Ayiorwoth
Girls Power Micro-Lending Organization
We love the creativity, innovation and impact that can come from simple ideas! In this case, a young woman in Uganda tying together the concepts of micro-lending and girls’ education! She started her organization GIPOMO in 2011 at age 19 with $40 in savings and has since helped hundreds of mothers keep their daughters in school. The approach is simple: in order to receive a loan, a woman does not need collateral, but must show that she is investing in her daughter’s education. Best has recently attracted the attention of She Leads Africa, an organization that supports young African professionals.
Read more about hard working Best!
Eric Glustrom
Educate!
Educate! was born out of a young person’s travels, observations and open heart. It started with a single scholarship awarded to a refugee when Eric visited Western Uganda while in high school in 2002. As Amherst College students, Eric and classmate Boris Bulayev (and Angelica Towne/Middlebury) established Educate!. By receiving mentoring and instruction in leadership and how to start small businesses, students can pay their school fees, and have transferable skills and experience for post-graduation success. Educate! grew to 470,000 participants in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya in 2019. Research shows the program has a bigger impact on girls. They are scaling this practical, skills-based model through national education systems to reach millions across Africa, where youth unemployment is pervasive. Eric is also Founder and President of Watson University.
James Kassaga Arinaitwe
Teach for Uganda
Read James’ story about his own schooling as a young child and you will know why he started Teach for Uganda. Education is the “great equalizer,” but Uganda has a dire need for quality teachers. Like Teach for America, promising university graduates and young professionals are recruited to teach and provide a sense of possibility in rural, disadvantaged government schools for two years. They are trained and given ongoing support. James, who holds Masters in both Public Health and Sustainable Development has absorbed knowledge and best practices from every organization he has been a part of to create Teach for Uganda. These include the President Jimmy Carter Center, Global Health Corps, Educate! and the Aspen Institute.
Tammy Tibbetts & Christen Brandt
She’s the First
It all started in 2009 with a simple YouTube video posted to Facebook and an idea to use social media to inspire and motivate Millennials to support Girls’ Education. The organization focuses on girls who will be the first in their families to graduate from high school and trains students everywhere to be global citizens. By partnering with other international programs led by locals who know their communities best, STF impacts 35,145 girls annually. (AfricAid’s Kisa Scholars have been beneficiaries.). 102,900 girls across 26 countries have been mobilized in the movement for gender equality on high school and college campuses and through toolkits. Girls aged 14-22 can apply to serve a one year term on their Advisory Council. Watch STF on the Today Show!
Monica Nyiraguyabwa
Girl Up Initiative Uganda
This organization tackles gender inequality, builds self-worth and self-esteem among girls and was the vision in 2012 of Monica and Kim Wolf, along with their colleague Saidi Alikwan. Its Adolescent Girls Training Program delivers a 10 month in-school curriculum, including providing critical knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, and the Girl Up Club extends these lessons weekly after school. The girls graduate as peer mentors in their school and home environments. In 2019, this program reached over 1,000 girls at 15 public elementary schools in the Kampala District. GUIU also has a program directed to young boys to help change attitudes about the capability and value of girls, and a sewing/design workshop teaching employable skills. Monica was named an Obama Africa Fellow in 2018.
Kavita Ramdas
The Global Fund for Women
Kavita’s entire career has been dedicated to empowering women and girls. She believes, “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.” From 1996-2010, she headed the Global Fund for Women, the largest public foundation in the world focusing solely on women’s rights. It provides money and support to women-led organizations who are fighting for justice in their own communities. During that time, she grew the fund’s assets from $3 million to $21 million. She served as a senior advisor on global strategy to the Ford Foundation and was director of the Open Society Foundations’ Women’s Rights Program.
Bay Roberts & Patty Gilbert
One School at a Time
In 2005, a trip to Uganda for two friends had two important outcomes. It was the start of an adoption journey (Bay later welcomed Juliet to her family in Colorado). It also was the impetus for a new organization that provides assistance to rural Ugandan communities who are motivated to improve their schools. Today, 1SAT partners with 5 primary and secondary schools serving 2,250 students in the Mubende District. The parents and teachers create a 5-year plan identifying their own needs and invest sweat equity in projects, such as clean water and hygiene systems. There is an emphasis on keeping girls in school by building private latrines and providing AFRIpads (550 girls receive these kits annually). Teachers also receive training in non-violent communication, curbing corporal punishment.
Eliakunda Kaaya
Her Journey to School
Ellie has a remarkable success story and she is an inspiration to all who meet her – especially any young girl who may have lost hope for completing her education. Ellie grew up in a village in Tanzania that does not believe in educating girls. The youngest of 9 children who lost their dad, Ellie escaped servitude and fiercely pursued her dream to attend school, making it all the way to a sociology degree at St. Augustine University, where she started an entrepreneurship program. Ellie is a She’s the First Scholar and Fellow (and appears in their video Extraordinary Woman), and worked as a Kisa Mentor with Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative (GLAMI). She is now using her leadership experience advocating for girls in her home community through her own organization, helping their parents understand the value of girls’ education. Read about Ellie’s exciting meeting with Michelle Obama in a small group setting!
Elizabeth Nyamayaro
HeForShe
Elizabeth is an exemplary humanitarian and political scientist with an inspirational life story. Born in a small village in Zimbabwe, she was guided and encouraged by a strong and forward-thinking grandmother. As a young girl, she encountered a UNICEF worker who was deployed during a severe drought, and she formed a dream of working for the UN one day. With much determination, that dream came true and Elizabeth has held leadership positions at the World Bank, WHO, UNAIDS, and UN Women. At the UN, she launched HeForShe, a global solidarity movement for gender equality. In 2021, she published a memoir, I am a Girl from Africa. Watch her TED Talk and be sure to follow this creative feminist influencer on Instagram.
Einoth Justine
Help Them Write
Einoth has always been passionate about reading and writing. As an A-Level student in Tanzania, she entered a national essay competition and won the grand prize of a computer. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Mzumbe University and joined Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative as a Mentor to hundreds of secondary school girls in GLAMI’s Kisa leadership program. She is now a Manager for the Kupanda Project, another girls’ empowerment program. She supports 128 girls at Idetemya Secondary School with tutoring/technology, and teaches lessons on nutrition and water, menstruation, and security. Einoth started an initiative called “Help Them Write” to promote youth literacy in Tanzania. She spoke about “a reading revolution” at TEXxMajengo in Arusha in November, 2021. Einoth is a guest blogger for us!
