Resolute and resourceful, Ann Cotton has transformed the lives of countless girls and young women in Africa. The British education pioneer has just received the <br />2014 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) prize in Doha in recognition of her work in giving learning opportunities to females in sub-saharan Africa, where it is estimated some 24 million girls do not get any schooling. Cotton is the founder of the Campaign for Female Education or Camfed<br /><br />In 1991 Ann went on a research trip to Zimbabwe to investigate why so few girls were going to school. What she found was that families, faced with a choice, had favoured boys getting an education as it was felt they had a better chance of getting a paid job after leaving school. <br /><br />“In the early stages in the community of Mola I realized that girls had not been asked what they wanted to do in the future, she says. “So when I began to ask them what their aspirations were I met really quite blank faces and silence. I had to start at a different point and I had to learn with them.”<br /><br />In this edition of Learning World presenter Maha Barada meets this inspirational figure and some of those who have benefited from her determination to improve their lives. <br /><br />We trace her journey from Cambridge to remote corners of rural Africa and find out what why WISE selected her as the winner of this year’s prize. <br /><br />Watch the video.
