CAMFED CO-EXECUTIVES HONORED WITH 2020 YIDAN PRIZE FOR EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT

Lucy Lake, CAMFED’s Chief Executive Officer.

23 SEPTERMBER 2020 the Yidan Prize Foundation, a global philanthropic educational foundation inspiring future progress and change in education, named Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED’s Executive Director - Africa, and Lucy Lake, CAMFED’s Chief Executive Officer, as 2020 laureates of the Yidan Prize for Education Development, the world’s largest prize in education. 

CAMFED’s Co-executives accepted the award on behalf of CAMFED, as the first team to be granted the Yidan Prize since its inception in 2017. The Prize represents a profound endorsement of CAMFED’s community-led model for girls’ education, and comes at a critical time as CAMFED and its partners tackle the impact of the current crisis, which has left millions of girls vulnerable.

“Education transformation is more important than ever. The outstanding achievements and

commitment of this year’s laureates demonstrate that in a post-pandemic world, education continues to be of vital importance to solving future problems and creating positive change in individuals, communities and the environment. Innovative ideas and practices are key to driving progress in education to create a better world,” said Dr Charles CHEN Yidan, Founder of the Yidan Prize Foundation. “This year has been challenging for many in the education system with COVID-19 causing unprecedented disruption to learning and to schools. It is therefore crucial that we champion people with the courage to bring educational change and reimagine the future of education.”

Celebrating Excellence in Education

The Yidan Prize is an inclusive education award that recognizes individuals, or up to three-member teams, who have contributed significantly to education research and development. This year’s 

laureates, including Professor Carl Wieman, who was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Research, will be recognized at the Yidan Prize Annual Summit held virtually on 7 December. They were chosen by the Yidan Prize Judging Committee in a five-month judging process, from an extensive field of nominations covering 103 countries.

“This Prize brings a spotlight to the power of our growing movement led by young women who are the experts on what it takes for the most marginalized girls to succeed,” Lucy Lake said, “Together, we will launch our ambition to support five million girls in school, and it will be game-changing!” Angeline Murimirwa added, “This is a dream come true, especially at such a time as this! Together we are going to make more girls and young women’s dreams come true. We are going to make this world an even better place.”

Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED’s Executive Director - Africa.

The award particularly recognizes the contribution to equitable quality education delivered through CAMFED’s innovative Learner Guide program, which sees young women leaders in the CAMFED Association, who themselves were supported in their education by CAMFED, at the forefront of designing and delivering programs in support of more girls in their communities, in partnership with government ministries. 

The program provides a scalable, replicable and inclusive approach to girls’ and young women’s education in sub-Saharan Africa, tackling high levels of exclusion and drop-out from school, lack of relatable role models, and youth unemployment. 

Through the Learner Guide program, marginalized girls receive the material and social support to learn and thrive, while young women gain the skills, opportunities and confidence to transition from secondary school to fulfilling, independent livelihoods and leadership. 

CAMFED will use the prize money to scale up the Learner Guide program, contributing to the training of 20,000 Learner Guides, who will in turn support one million adolescent girls in school — a major step towards our goal of supporting five million girls.

“Our sincerest thanks go to the Yidan Prize Foundation, and to its founder, Dr. Charles Chen Yidan, for this extraordinary recognition,” CAMFED’s Co-Executives said, “and to the young women leaders in our CAMFED Association, our partner communities, donors, supporters and champions across the globe - Together We Can!”                                 

 **Ends**

About CAMFED

Learn, thrive and lead change

CAMFED is a pan-African movement, revolutionizing how girls’ education is delivered. Through a gold-standard system of accountability to the young people and communities we serve, we have created a model that radically improves girls’ prospects of becoming independent, influential women. Our impact increases exponentially through the Association of young women educated with CAMFED’s support. Together, we multiply the number of girls in school, and accelerate their transition to secure livelihoods and leadership. 

Through the CAMFED Association, women are leading action on the big challenges their countries face - from child marriage, and girls’ exclusion from education, to climate change. This unique pan-African network of lawyers, doctors, educators, and entrepreneurs now numbers more than 157,000 and is growing exponentially as more girls complete school and join them. 

Our collective efforts have already supported more than 4.1 million children to go to school across Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and more than 6 million students have benefited from an improved educational environment. 

For more information visit camfed.org.  Follow us across social media: @camfed.

About the Yidan Prize Foundation and Yidan Prize

Founded in 2016 by Dr Charles CHEN Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize Foundation has a mission of creating a better world through education. The Yidan Prize is an inclusive education award that recognizes individuals, or up to three-member teams, who have contributed significantly to education research and development. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development. 

Yidan Prize Laureates each receive a gold medal. In addition, a total of HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million) of prize funds is awarded to the individual or team from each category. To ensure transparency and sustainability, the prize is managed by Yidan Prize Foundation and governed by an independent trust with an endowment of HK$2.5 billion (around US$323 million). 

Through a series of initiatives, the prize aims to establish a platform for the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy. In April 2020, the Yidan Prize Foundation joined UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition for COVID-19 response to support countries in scaling up their best distance learning practices and reaching children and youth who are most at risk.

Yidan Prize Foundation Website: https://yidanprize.org