Among the many benefits of educating girls in Africa is its
potential for reducing population pressure, Camfed International
Director Ann Cotton said at the Footprint Forum Conference
public day. Girls’ education has moved center stage from being
viewed as a gender and equality issue to one that is
increasingly seen as central to global security and the
elimination of poverty, Cotton said. “Every child is born to a
mother, and when a child is born to a mother who is not
educated, that child is at a disadvantage from the start.”
Educating girls also has a significant impact in reducing family
size, an important issue in impoverished regions where access to
basic resources can be a challenge. “In Zambia, in all of the
schools in which we work, we’ve seen a reduction in pregnancy by
90 percent,” Cotton said. By funding the relatively minimal
costs that it takes for a girl to acquire the school books and
uniforms she needs to attend school, Camfed has enabled 400,000
young women to complete an education. Some 14,