Research

The Cama membership is unique in providing insights into the lives and choices of a social group that remains as one of the most profoundly vulnerable in the world today – young women from rural communities in Africa.

Each Cama members provides important information on their lives including the date of marriage and first child. Business activity is tracked through the Seed Money Program. New educational and professional qualifications are logged along with career paths. Discreet studies provide additional analysis.

For example, a study in Zimbabwe in 2007, showed that Cama members were marrying at an average age of 21.8 showing a substantial delay against the rural norm. Additionally, they are marrying young men of their choice, a highly significant fact in their protection from HIV/AIDS given the most likely path of transmission from older men to girls and young women.

The Cama membership also provides insights that guide program developments. In Zimbabwe, members from across 50 per cent of the country, are providing up to date information on to how to direct resources to best effect in the current economic crisis.

Cama members are themselves being trained as mentors and researchers. As educated young women, speaking local language and with understanding of the nuances of community and family relationships, they have earned a feel of trust and respect that yields a high quality of information. In 2008, a major baseline study of Camfed programs across Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania, will enable Cama researchers to extend their skill and knowledge as well as the capacity of Camfed to distill valuable lessons for replication.

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