11. Ann Cotton OBE
No list of amazing and inspirational women would be complete without a girl from my home country: Wales.
Cardiff-born Ann Cotton gave up her regular teaching job and founded the Campaign for Female Education, also known as CAMFED, in 1993. CAMFED is an organisation that educates young women in rural Africa. Her work has supported African girls through school and helped to improve their living standards: lifting them out of poverty.
By giving the opportunity of education to girls in poor African communities she has changed their lives forever.
That’s what heroines do, and Ann Cotton is definitely a heroin.
The model that she follows is to create sustainability in part through CAMA: a 25,000-member pan-African network of CAMFED graduates who are now rural businesswomen, and have become role models for their communities through the economic independence they have achieved for themselves. Almost 5,000 of these graduates have become teachers: further propagating the message of hope for so many.
Ann was awarded the Wise prize at an education summit in Qatar in 2014 and was recognised by the OECD for best practice in development innovation. She was also honoured with an Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 2006 in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
Featured image Illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati
This article originally appeared at https://richardjamesrogers.com/?ref=ukedchat
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