Interview with Mwangala, Programs Manager, CAMFED Zambia
Introduction to the interview
Growing up in rural Zambia, Mwangala wasn’t sure she would finish secondary school. After her father passed away in Grade 10, the cost of fees and uniforms, and long walks from unsafe boarding arrangements made education feel out of reach—until a local committee identified her for CAMFED support. That moment restored her focus and set her on a path from student to mentor to community leader.
Today, as a CAMFED Programs Manager and CAMFED Association leader, she helps young women build the confidence and networks she once needed—guiding Learner Guides who support students in classrooms and at home, and opening doors to national and global platforms. Through our partnership, Be That Girl is proud to be advancing CAMFED's model that keeps girls in school, strengthens local leadership, and turns individual success into collective impact.
In this interview, we explore Mwangala’s early foundations, the mentors who shaped her, how communities are dismantling systemic barriers, and her vision for a future where CAMFED Association sisters lead in classrooms, markets, ministries—and beyond.
I. Early Foundations & Education
1. Formative Beginnings
Q: Reflecting on your childhood in rural Zambia, what early experiences sparked your determination to challenge traditional gender norms?
Mwangala: Growing up in rural Zambia, I faced a lot of challenges and education was a far-fetched dream. When I was in Grade 10 (the first year of upper secondary school), my dad, who was the sole provider, passed on. As the first born in a family of six, I did my best to support my mother, who was now the only parent left to be able to fend for the six of us.
Just as many other girls in rural Zambia, I couldn't see myself being able to complete secondary school.
2. The Weight of Early Responsibility
Q: As a child, did you face challenges to access education?
Mwangala: At that time, education wasn't free in Zambia, so that meant that we used to pay school fees as well as buying school uniforms, books and other essentials. Before CAMFED stepped in, it was very difficult for me to find the money to cover those costs.
Also, at my school there were no boarding facilities for girls, there were only boarding facilities for boys. It was really challenging because girls were just renting boarding facilities in the community. We then had to travel long distances from the boarding facilities to school.
3. A Moment of Transformation
Q: Can you describe the moment you learned that CAMFED would support your education, and how that promise redefined your vision for the future?
Mwangala: I was identified in the community by the school-based committee of parents and teachers that are responsible for the selection of vulnerable children.
I can still vividly feel how excited I was when I found out I was going to be supported by CAMFED at school. I was able to see a bright future. I wasn't worried about where my mother was going to find money to pay for my fees, books and shoes. I could concentrate on my education because CAMFED was going to cover all my school essentials
That was one of the moments in my life when I was very happy and hope was restored in me, knowing that I was going to complete secondary school.
II. Mentorship and the Journey to Leadership
The Power of Guidance
Q: Mentorship has been pivotal in your journey. How did the support and advice you received from your mentors help cultivate the strengths that now drive your leadership? Can you recall one of the mentors that you had and what kind of real impact? What did she tell you to make sure that you could get so much from mentorship?
Mwangala: CAMFED Association members (young women who had already graduated school with CAMFED support) helped me become the young woman that I am today. Without the mentorship support, I don't know what I would have done after completing secondary school.
I was one of the first CAMFED supported students here in Zambia. We didn't have the CAMFED Association then, but I was supported by my fellow members from other countries. That played a significant role in shaping who I am today; learning how they managed to navigate life's challenges in their rural communities.
Mentorship goes beyond just individuals — it also helps shape people to become role models to the next generation of girls.
I remember our first CAMFED Association meeting in Zambia, joined by members from Zimbabwe and Tanzania. They asked us to share our life experiences, but I was very timid and wasn't able to stand in front of people and express myself. They kept encouraging us, saying, "You can do it." Because they believed in us, even when we didn't believe in ourselves, we started to be confident.
The following day, when I came back and stood on the platform, I couldn't believe it was me who spoke. I can certainly say that that mentoring helped me. To this very day, I owe it to my big sisters in the network.
1. From Mentee to Mentor
Q: Now, as a leader at CAMFED, how do you guide the next generation of girls and young women to nurture their self-determination, and what do you believe is essential for their growth?
Mwangala: I've seen young CAMFED Association members struggle, maybe not being able to believe in themselves. So together with my fellow CAMFED Association members who now act as role models and big sisters, I help them to find their voices. We also make sure they can concentrate on further education, work or business endeavors, and support the next generation of girls in turn.
III. Empowerment and Community Leadership and Partnership with BTG
1. Mobilizing Grassroots Leadership
Q: In your role at CAMFED, you've been instrumental in mobilizing communities. How have you built spaces for rural women to step into leadership roles and redefine their societal contributions?
Mwangala: As a CAMFED Association leader and also in my role at CAMFED, I've been instrumental in ensuring that we build spaces for young women — so their voices are heard at community level, at national level, and at international level.
Recently, we had what we call the National Youth Indaba, organized by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, and Art for young people across Zambia. Previously, this meeting was mostly accessible to youths from urban areas and social media influencers. During a meeting I attended at the Ministry of Youth, we lobbied the ministry to make sure young women from rural areas could attend.
The first National Youth Indaba which CAMFED Association members participated in was last year. It was attended also by The President of the Republic of Zambia and a panel of ministers. It meant young rural women coming to Lusaka, seeing the president and posing questions from their specific perspective.
At this year’s Indaba, CAMFED Association members were able to showcase their knowledge and the activities they're doing at district level. The president came to the CAMFED Association stand — he was very interested and took pictures with the expert who was there.
2. Redefining Empowerment
Q: What does true empowerment look like to you today, especially for rural women who are rewriting their own narratives and challenging traditional constraints?
Mwangala: Power is being able to add your voice to the conversation about issues that are affecting individuals and communities. It is also about being able to believe in yourself and being able to support the next generation of girls.
This goes beyond just the financial. It's being able to support communities to make decisions that protect vulnerable groups, including girls, ensuring that they can thrive in school and beyond.
Transformation happens when we all come on board to work together for girls' education — ensuring girls get the much needed support from local leaders, government, schools, and all of us.
3. Overcoming Systemic Barriers
Q: What are some of the persistent systemic challenges that rural women face, and how are you working with your community to dismantle these obstacles?
Mwangala: There are many challenges that rural communities face. When we talk of overcoming systemic issues, what quickly comes to mind are the challenges of poverty and hunger, which result in pressure for girls and young women to marry and begin child-bearing early.
If communities are not able to bring in good harvests, perhaps because of drought, there's hunger and poverty. So they often feel there is no other choice but for girls to get married. The hope is that this will give them some security, when in fact it usually leads to exploitation and early pregnancy, and an end to a girl’s education, and her dreams.
This is where CAMFED Learner Guides (peer mentors) can step in. Learner Guides are graduates in the CAMFED Association who return to schools in their communities, and deliver the “My Better World” self-development program. They support students to make positive life choices and form study groups to help them succeed academically. Learner Guides also go beyond the school environment, visiting children and parents in the communities.
Three examples I can give of how Learner Guides and communities are taking action to dismantle obstacles are:
Returning children to school: In Zambia we now have a re-entry policy, which enables girls who become pregnant to go back to school and complete their education. We have seen Learner Guides and parents encouraging children to return, helping ensure they have the support they need to do so.
Ensuring they can learn: Where there's been drought, like last year here in Zambia, Learner Guides have been out into communities to mobilize resources. Some of them initiate programs providing food to children in school. That really motivates students to attend, knowing they will have something to eat.
Supporting them to succeed: In one particular school, we have seen that 100% of children were able to progress from one grade to the other because their academic performance had increased as a result of additional social and learning support.
The Learner Guide program has been instrumental in ensuring that barriers are broken, and it’s encouraging to see its impact and influence growing all the time.
IV. Partnership with Be That Girl
1. Priority Areas for Support
Q: Be That Girl is partnering with CAMFED to support delivery of the Learner Guide program at scale in Zambia. What is the impact of this particular program on young people?
Mwangala: The Learner Guide program is CAMFED’s flagship program and is making a remarkable impact. In 2024 alone, nearly 2 million children were reached with social and learning support provided by more than 21,000 Learner Guides across five countries.
As CAMFED and Learner Guides, we don’t work in isolation, but partner with leaders at local and national level. Communities can see the positive results, with children learning and succeeding, and are supporting our efforts fully. They are coming together to mobilize resources, perhaps to buy food for children, knowing a child cannot go to school on an empty tummy.
There are also increasing efforts to realize girls' and women's rights and representation in leadership. As one example, schools are giving opportunities to the Learner Guides, recommending them to be recruited as teachers. In 2022, when we had a massive recruitment of teachers by the government of Zambia, 117 CAMFED Association members were recruited as teachers.
Q: What would you say are the priorities for girls in rural Zambia that funders like Be That Girl should focus their support on?
With the support of partners like Be That Girl, CAMFED can continue its work to identify the most marginalized girls — including those out of school, ensuring the local authorities take note of them. Though we have a free education policy in Zambia, we still have gaps. Free education has enabled more children to go to school, but then what happens to infrastructure?
With partners like Be That Girl coming on board with CAMFED Association members and school community members, we can bring new resources together. For example, we can ensure girls have safe boarding facilities to address the barrier of long distances to school so they can learn and thrive.
We can provide students with the individualized financial and material support they need – including items like books, uniforms, shoes and menstrual products – and build a nurturing social support network around them.
2. Role of Philanthropy
Q: How do you see the role of philanthropy for the future of education in Zambia?
Mwangala: For me, education requires a concerted effort from the local, national, and international community. It’s about shaping the provision of education to the most vulnerable children, especially girls in rural areas, while improving access and providing quality education to all children.
3. Sustainability Beyond Charity
Q: How can we work together to make access to education more sustainable and less dependent on charity going forward?
Mwangala: First, I will speak from the CAMFED Association perspective. We understand that working alone governments or partner organizations aren’t able to support all marginalized children. So we ask ourselves, “What is it that we, as young women who have passed through the education system, who have lived through the challenges, can do?”
One powerful example is seen in CAMFED Association members who were themselves supported through school by CAMFED and are now working in formal employment — we call them CAMA professionals. CAMA professionals mobilize considerable resources to support more children in school. They are living examples of how education can transform many lives and not just one.
Something that CAMFED Association members do very well is to increase the multiplier effect of girls’ education.
The other key example is through CAMFED’s systems transformation work. In Zambia and other countries, we are working with government partners to integrate and scale elements of the Learner Guide program into national school systems sustainably, through a co-creation model. Our aim is to see millions more students benefiting from a peer mentor accompanying them through school.
V. CAMFED Association and CAMFED's History in Zambia
1. Growth and Expansion
Q: You have a founding role in the CAMFED Association (CAMA), Africa's largest and fastest-growing peer support and leadership network of young women activists for girls' education. As you have been part of it from the very beginning, how have you seen its role and reach expand over the years?
Mwangala: The CAMFED Association has really expanded over the years. We started out with only 35 members in Zambia, but now we have more than 36,000 CAMFED Association members here, and 313,000 across Africa .
I'm proud that CAMFED Association members stay in the network. It’s because we have built a strong support system where those who were once vulnerable have found their sisterhood. We understand the challenges that girls are facing and step up to mentor the next generation. We stay to keep making a positive impact.
I wake up every morning knowing that I'm going to be making a difference with my fellow sisters in the CAMFED Association.
2. The Secret Behind Success
Q: What would you say is the secret behind the CAMFED Association?
Mwangala: There's no secret, really. Results speak for themselves. What attracts us to remain in the Association? I say sisterhood.
Sometimes it's difficult when you do not have a network — you feel lost, you don't have information. But when you are connected with other like-minded sisters, it's easy to get information. For example, information on career choices, mentorship and business opportunities.
CAMFED Association sisters who are running businesses can create market linkages for others and mentor those who are starting out. Young women at universities and colleges can offer advice about applications and career choices
These are some of the strengths of the CAMFED Association. The power lies in our numbers. The more we are, the more powerful we become.
3. Biggest Achievements
Q: You have been part of CAMFED's journey in Zambia since its early days. What would you say have been the organisation's biggest achievements?
Mwangala: The biggest achievement of the CAMFED Association, for me, is the increase in our numbers. Young women are staying and committing to the network, so we are not only growing in numbers but also in expertise and impact.
From the CAMFED Zambia perspective, a moment of pride was when we won the 2024 UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education. The award was presented to CAMFED Zambia in recognition of incredible efforts in uplifting and igniting the potential of more than 617,800 girls and young women since 2001.
The prize shone a light on the impact of our movement in the community. It has attracted more support, because everyone wants to be associated with an award-winning organization. We are increasingly seeing local leaders asking, “What can we do to support CAMFED?” They might offer CAMFED Association members a piece of land to grow climate resilient crops that can withstand drought and feed children in schools, for example.
From the chiefs who have given CAMFED Association members land, to the government ministries who are employing CAMFED Association members — everyone is coming on board.
VI. Vision for the Future & Enduring Legacy
1. Charting a Bold Future
Q: Looking ahead, what do you envision for education and economic opportunities for rural women in Zambia and across Africa?
Mwangala: I envision a situation where we have parliamentarians, and one of them is a CAMFED Association member. I would like to walk into a government office and find a CAMFED Association member. I want to go to a market and see that one of the biggest entrepreneurs there is a CAMFED Association member. That is my vision.
Right now, we are ensuring that we create opportunities for CAMFED Association members to claim their rightful places at the table. I'm glad to share that we have a Learner Guide called Hellen — who is also a teacher and a CAMFED Association Chairperson — sitting on the Curriculum Development Committee supporting to develop the curriculum and translate it from English into the local language.
We want to see more young women being recognized and able to take up those places. That's our vision for every CAMFED Association member and Learner Guide — to see them at the highest decision-making tables.
2. A Blueprint for Aspiration
Q: Reflecting on your remarkable journey, what advice would you give to the next generation of women leaders?
Mwangala: My advice to the next generation of women leaders is:
Believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, then you will doubt yourself and you will not be able to make progress.
Belong to a network. Don't work in isolation. Offer yourself to others as an example, so they can see what is possible.
Be willing to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
The most important thing is to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, then you can't achieve all these things.
I'm happy that you extended this invitation to us to be able to share what we are doing as CAMFED Association members and as CAMFED. Thank you.