I don't mean to humble brag, but I am on a first name basis with one of the most influential people in the world (according to the new list from Time magazine).
It's not Serena Williams. It's not Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
It's Angeline Murimirwa, who goes by "Angie."
I interviewed Angie back in 2018 in a pub in Oxford. We were attending the Skoll World Forum – a yearly gathering of social activists and advocates. She was then Africa director of CAMFED — the Campaign for Female Education). It's a charity that gives full scholarships covering tuition and any related expenses to girls in five countries in Africa so they can complete their primary and secondary education.
CAMFED started when Ann Cotton, a teacher from Wales, visited Zimbabwe and was struck by how hard it was for girls to stay in school. The now globally-supported charity has gone from providing an initial 32 scholarships in Zimbabwe in 1993 to putting millions through school.
Angie herself, the daughter of Zimbabwean subsistence farmers, was one of those girls. Without a CAMFED scholarship, she says she would have dropped out after primary school.
Over the years she's been on many cool lists but now she is in the "icon" category of Time's most influential people!
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai wrote the essay explaining why Angie is one of this year's honorees in her current role as CEO of CAMFED: "Educating girls is the foundation of healthy and strong societies. But in many places, the barriers to attending school are mounting, depriving girls of the resources to choose their own futures. Few people are fighting to solve this crisis as tenaciously and effectively as Angeline."
We caught up over zoom. Angie was in New York for a gala event celebrating the Time 100. (This year's group will also be featured in an ABC-TV special airing May 4 at 9 p.m. ET.)
I'm a little intimidated talking to a newly crowned "icon" who's one of the world's most influential people.
Oh come on, if I didn't intimidate you in that pub in Oxford, I couldn't intimate you over virtual.
When you were a little girl in the Zimbabwean village of Denhere back in the 1980s, your family couldn't always afford school fees for supplies. An inspector would come to your elementary school and call out the names of students whose parents hadn't paid up and tell them they had to leave the classroom until the debt was paid.
And the school devised a plan to keep you safe from the inspector.
We were very strategic. The teacher would say, "Oh Angie, I think you want to go to the bathroom right now."
What was the bathroom like?
The word "bathroom" is very generous. They dug a couple holes and had concrete on the floor and walls around it. And that's the bathroom for hundreds of girls.
So you'd hide out in the bathroom …
And then when the inspector left, someone would come and say, "Angie, the teacher said you can now come."
Surely you're the only icon with that experience.
I've come from hiding in the bathroom to being intimidating!
Even today, many girls have a hard time staying in school.
It's so true – girls' exclusion from school – the exclusion of [all] marginalized children exclusion from school – is very much a reality
CAMFED works in regions where only 5% of girls get to complete high school. It's still very much a huge issue.
What would you say to those girls struggling to stay in school – often because their families like yours can't afford the fees and also because families might give boys priority for education over girls.
I am going to break my English here — you know I always take liberties.
I would tell them, "If I did it, you can did it — you can did it better, faster. It's not elusive, it's not wild, crazy to imagine that you can."
If there's anything that can give them energy and momentum, it's to know that it's possible. That's for me the greatest gift for all who believe in education against all odds.
So now would be a good time to ask you to boast about the work of CAMFED.
I'm influential. I know how to brag now. When we met that time [in 2018], it was 4.8 million children supported by CAMFED to stay in school. Now we have 6.8 million we've supported by the end of 2024. This number is huge.
And when we met in 2018, we had around 178,000 members. You need to write this very carefully: We now have 313,000 members. Make sure you put the zeroes there.
Can you explain what you mean by members? These are … volunteers?
These are young women who have been supported by CAMFED and who've signed up to support the next generation.
On average they support 3 other children – you know, girls like me who had to hide in the toilet. They meet with them, follow up at home, meet with parents, support the girls not to drop out.
We are creating a movement that supports children to not just enroll but to thrive in the school system.
You're getting top down support as well?
What's happening is governments are coming to say, Can we partner with you to create national programs?
With your now official status as being "influential" what influence do you plan to do in the future?
I still insist that it begins with sending a girl to school. This is the time to support more girls, to support them better and to support them NOW – in capital letters.
Can I ask a few personal questions? What's your age?
You never ask a woman her age. I'm mature, I get better with age like wine.
And you are the mother of how many children?
Four kids. I'm not expanding on that.
The oldest is 24. The youngest is 12 so that's how old I am.
How did they react to your "influential icon" status?
The youngest [a daughter] was like, "I'm superproud of you. I see Serena is on the list. Can you get a photo of you and Serena?
My other daughter said, "I'm just so proud of you because grandma tells me all these stories of working hard – I hope they really know how hard you work."
And the boys were like, "Congrats mom, that's good."
I've been treated well, had breakfast in bed — almost edible.
Maybe I should have asked this first — but how does this make you feel to be part of the Time 100?
As much as everyone says, "Angie's on the Time 100," my sisters in the world, the women CAMFED has supported, our male and female employees, my village, they say, "We are on the Time 100."
How have your parentS reacted to this new honor?
My dad passed. My mom doesn't know anything about the Time 100. She just says: Will more girls go to school because of this? You can celebrate, but what has it got to do with the bottom line?
And you're thinking?
Mama, can I just have this, okay?
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