Alice grew up in rural Zambia, helping her hard-working widowed mother of ten by selling cassava leaves and working as a maid to help buy food and school supplies.

At 14,  Alice had to drop out of school because the family could no longer afford the costs.  This is when girls in rural communities are at great risk of child marriage, often seen as the only way to secure their future.

But Alice’s life was transformed when the School Based Committee at Camfed’s local partner secondary school in Samfya noted her absence and selected her to receive a Camfed scholarship. The support allowed her to complete secondary school and join Camfed’s pan-African CAMA alumnae network of young women leaders. Through CAMA, Alice became a trainer in financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

Alice started a poultry business to fund her own university education, obtaining a diploma in Human Resource Management at the National Institution of Public Administration in Lusaka. She recently completed a degree in Sociology through distance learning at Women’s University of Africa.

She now works as Camfed Zambia’s District Operations Secretariat in Samfya, collaborating closely with partner schools and district ministry officials on Camfed’s Community Development Committee, many of whom she knows from her own school days and involvement with the CAMA network.