Meghan Markle delivers message at CAMFED Gala

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been longtime supporters of The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) and the uplifting and vital work they conduct in Africa. CAMFED has just received vital funding in the form of the $2.5million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to support their work in empowering young women and eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls. Their philanthropic partner has just been awarded the $2.5million prize, which will allow them to expand their work efforts in the region.

The organisation’s aim is to “bring girls’ education back on the agenda at a critical time” and they help young girls in the third-world country to start and remain in education.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex matched a $130,000 donation last September for the Campaign for Female Education.

Also when their second child Lilibet Diana was born in June, the couple encouraged supporters to donate to CAMFED in lieu of gifts.

Speaking of the royal couple who share CAMFED’s vision of “supporting and advancing young people” and the “raising voices for those that are in the margins”, Executive Director Angie Murimirwa believes that their help will provide long-term benefits for the young women they support.

She said: “I believe firmly that this is something that we’ll be doing with [Harry and Meghan] for a very long time. For as long as these girls are out of school and the young need a lift up, I’m sure that we’ll be doing this together with them for the future.”

She added that both Meghan and Harry, and the Campaign for Female Education are working to “support people with dignity and with pride and allow them to be able to speak for themselves.”

The funding will be awarded virtually to CAMFED on October 13, in a time which their executive director referred to as “critical”.

She also said the pandemic has been “one of the worst things that it has done is further deepen inequality and inequity across communities.”

Ms Murimirwa told PEOPLE magazine: “We are super excited because there are now additional resources for us to be able to do what we’ve always done and to be able to get more scale and support more learners.”

She reiterated Harry and Meghan’s belief in the charity by saying that the couple “strongly believe in what [we] do” and that throughout the pandemic the charity has “continued to engage with them and interact with their team. They echo their voice with us.”

The leader has met with the royal pair – Angie sat with The Duchess of Sussex at an International Women’s Day event in 2019, while she and the Duke of Sussex interacted during his Zambia trip the year before.

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The cash injection will help the charity reiterate its all-important message and their work can act as a “continuous reminder to everybody on the value of education, but also the fact that this is an investment — because it multiplies” as women support others.

Ms Murimirwa said: “This prize allows us to shine a bright light on … supporting the next generation of girls — and, of course, boys — [being] able to go to school.”

CAMFED has helped millions of girls in more than 6,000 schools across Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe since its conception.

By the end of 2025, the charity hopes to reach a target of supporting five million girls.

Ms Murimirwa who heads up a network of 178,000 change-makers, has a strong heritage within CAMFED as she was among the first 32 young women in Zimbabwe supported by the organisation.

Across the globe, in-person education ceased due to COVID-19 restrictions and the adjustment to virtual learning was strongly felt in Africa and proved a difficult challenge, further deepening inequality.

Many villages lack the resources and hardware to access online schooling, and the charity relied on local ambassadors such as teachers, nurses, doctors and lawyers to help support girls in their community who were struggling with the adjustment.

She reports: “We had young women who were using their own smartphones to get content and hold social-distance study groups in the villages to be able to show that children were not losing learning, but also to respond to any child protection issues.”

Despite their challenges, CAMFED has retained 90 percent attendance in the schools in which they work, exceeding national averages.

Their efforts aim to be extended so they can meet their 2025 vision, and they hope to create 150,000 new jobs and help 50,000 young women start businesses.

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