Ann Cotton

Social entrepreneur Ann Cotton is passionately committed to encouraging the rich potential of disadvantaged girls in rural Africa. She is the founder and Executive Director of CAMFED International, a charity that demonstrates the enormous social and financial returns an investment in girls' education in rural Africa can yield. Thanks to Ann's pioneering leadership over the last 12 years, CAMFED supported over 427,300 children and young people in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Ghana in 2004 alone.

In the early 1990s, after studying why girls were not attending secondary school in Zimbabwe, Ann consulted with the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education as well as the Nyaminyami and Chikomba communities to see how girls' education could be improved. As a beginning, 32 girls in Zimbabwe were selected by their community to attend local schools. This was funded by a market stall run by Ann in Cambridge city centre.

In 1993, CAMFED became a registered charity and triggered a dramatic expansion in the number of girls benefiting from education. From supporting 32 girls in Zimbabwe in 1993, 71,333 children were supported to stay in school in 2004 and168,000 children and young people were trained in health issues including HIV/AIDS and nutrition. In addition, 534 young women have established rural businesses to provide much needed goods and services to their communities, using micro-financing and mentoring. CAMFED has also partnered 778 schools to create a more child-centred environment.

In 2005, the CAMFED programme was introduced to Tanzania and will continue expanding to more communities in the countries where it already operates. There are also plans to extend its offices in the USA so as to diversify its donor sources.

Ann was awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004, is on the board of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative and advises the UK's Department for International Development on their strategy for girls' education, meeting regularly with senior officials and ministers. In her words, "Poverty diminishes us all - whether we are bound by its cruelty or witness to its effect. I am privileged to be working with families and communities in Africa determined to find a path out of poverty and thrilled by their progress."

"In all her work Ann has demonstrated remarkable qualities of vision, determination and diplomacy. We have had many remarkable students at SSE, but none has had quite the combination of maturity and passion which Ann brings to her work."

James Cornford, Trustee of School for Social Entrepreneurs

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