“What do you want to be?” This simple question, when put to all ages of schoolchildren in Tanzania, is one of the most direct ways to get a sense of how secondary education in the country can transform lives.

At a rural primary school near Iringa in central Tanzania, Happy, a girl of 14 whose introverted manner belies her name, and Shadrack, a solemn 15-year-old boy who is an orphan, both responded in the same way. They fell silent. No one will pay for them to continue their schooling. “It pains me in my heart that I am just going to stay at home,” Shadrack says.

A few hours drive away, in the Infunda area, the mood is different, optimistic. Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education), a British charity that supports girls’ education in rural Africa, has helped more than 1,000 girls in this district to attend secondary school. Mary, aged 15, is one of them. She wants to be an eye doctor. “Or, if I take arts, I want to be a lawyer. I want to fight for people’s rights, like girls who don’t get a chance to go to school.”

The FT is supporting Camfed for the second year running in its seasonal appeal. The confidence of four more years of paid-for education (Camfed covers all costs, from fees to uniforms) has given the girls the foundation to plan a different life. While the impact on individuals is profound, academic research in the past 15 years has shown the wider benefits of secondary education for girls in sub-Saharan Africa. For Camfed it is the best means to address poverty and HIV/Aids.

Gene Sperling, director of the Center for Universal Education at the US Council on Foreign Relations, says that “Instead of the case for education simply being that each year at school increases incomes by 10 per cent, now it is seen as the intervention that reaps some of the highest returns, especially on health, infant mortality and Aids.”

Camfed’s work does not end at secondary school. It also created Cama, a networking group that helps young women to create new businesses. Esther, 24, and Riziki, 23, have seen their lives change dramatically. After leaving school in Dar es Salaam and Matamba, a rural area three hours from Morogoro, they had little direction or prospect of work. Cama gave them basic business training at its weekly meetings.

Esther now has three lines of business: a small grocery selling kerosene and fish, a pineapple farm, and a pig she is fattening to sell at Christmas. Riziki, who was at the launch meeting of Cama in 2005 in Dar es Salaam, recalls: “At first I thought there was no way I’m going to be part of this. I thought if I hadn’t studied, I couldn’t succeed.” Two years later, she has increased profits at her grocery business from TSh2,000 a week (less than £1) to more than TSh60,000.

The money Camfed offers is small – £75 for a year of secondary education, £25 for a business grant – but the value of its work is immeasurable. It has enabled girls to find an answer to the question: “What do you want to be?”

To make a donation go to www.ft.com/appeal2007.

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Mary’s mother works from 5am to 8pm, leaving the 15-year-old to do household chores and cooking. Thanks to Camfed, Mary can attend secondary school, which finishes early enough for her to carry out her domestic duties. She hopes to be a doctor or lawyer

Esther, 24, left school despondent after failing her final exams. With the help of Camfed’s offshoot, Cama, she started a small grocery, bought a pineapple farm and is rearing a pig. She now calls herself ‘a businesswoman’

Riziki, 23, wraps tomatoes in her shop near Dar es Salaam. Her business has grown so quickly that she now wants to become a wholesaler. Riziki has also taught her father how to create a business

Every day after school, Mary has to farm the field behind her family’s mudbrick house.

The 17-year-old’s mother, Katarina, who is too sick to work, attended only primary school, but says: ‘There is nothing that saves you, either a man or a woman, like education. I felt a huge happiness [for Camfed’s help]. It was like God was with me.’

Naja is an orphan. She is committed to making the most of her education. Her guardian says: ‘As soon as Naja started back at school she decided to study very hard and cut off many friends.’

Girls gather in the playground of a secondary school at which Camfed sponsors 55 students – one third of the female pupils. The building is unfinished: only two of its seven classrooms have been completed. Many girls walk an hour to school; one girl paid for by Camfed walks an hour and 40 minutes.

The parents of Aziza both died when she was young. She was brought up by her older sister. Before Cama, Aziza had not considered a business career. She then started selling phone vouchers and bought two cows. ‘Now I am completely dependent on myself for my life.’

This pig belongs to Mary, the 15-year-old would-be doctor or lawyer pictured above