Stella Bendera: Girls’ education – a noble cause

Dr Stella Bendera is a leading activist in girls’ education in Tanzania. She held key positions in Tanzania’s Ministry of Education including coordinating the Girls’ Secondary Education Support (GSES) programme – a national bursary programme that supported 4,000 girls to attend secondary school. She is currently the Diversity Expert in the Gender Unit of the President’s Office for Public Service Management and sits on the board of Camfed Tanzania.

Stella holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and has published a number of research papers on gender and education in Tanzania for the Ministry of Education, the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE).

How did you first get involved with Camfed?

I first became involved with Camfed when I was working with a project that was supporting girls who come from poor households to get secondary education – the Girls Secondary Education Support programme, a joint World Bank and Ministry of Education and Culture project. Camfed’s Programme Manager for Tanzania Naomi Rouse had read about the project and that’s how we came into contact.

Why did you choose to become involved with Camfed?

I chose Camfed over other charities because we were pursuing a common goal and a noble cause indeed. I had great interest in supporting girls; I wanted to see the theories about gender that I had read about for so many years being translated into practice.

Camfed is unique because it touches the lives of poor vulnerable girls; girls whose lives change and make a huge contribution to society and to their lives as the mothers of tomorrow.

Why is educating girls in sub-Saharan Africa so important?

Educating girls in sub-Saharan Africa is so important because it is only by educating girls that you get a multiplier effect in society and for girls. An educated mother will educate her kids, take care of their health, take care of the environment and help to transform her community.