I want to thank FT readers warmly for the extremely generous response to our seasonal appeal on behalf of Camfed International, which has raised the remarkable total of £1,638,963.

British-based Camfed is dedicated to educating girls from poor backgrounds in Africa, and the FT’s appeal, which closed at the end of January, has raised enough money to put 5,463 girls through secondary education – potentially transforming their lives and those of their families.

Furthermore, thanks to the generosity of readers, Camfed has decided to extend its work this year to a fifth African country, Malawi. It already operates in three other southern African states – Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania – as well as in Ghana in west Africa.

The FT first supported Camfed with our 2006 seasonal appeal, which raised more than £600,000. We decided to back the charity again because of our enthusiasm for its work and our belief that it would be good to make a two-year commitment – in the same way it makes a multi-year commitment to the girls it sponsors through school.

We were hoping to top last year’s total but are delighted to have done so by £1m, helped by some powerful reporting from Africa by our correspondents Caroline Daniel and Michael Peel, accompanied by great photography from Charlie Bibby. Their work – including some atmospheric audio-visual essays – can still be found on our website at www.ft.com/appeal.

Ann Cotton, the charity’s founder and executive director, says: “In the past, the voices of rural girls in Africa have been barely audible. But they have spoken through the pages of the Financial Times these past two months with passion and confidence to a global readership that has listened and responded. The cycle of poverty passed from poor mother to poor child will be ended in the lives of 5,400 girls and the benefits will resonate down the generations. This is a magnificent legacy and all of us at Camfed are deeply grateful.”

This year’s appeal has been greatly aided by some extremely generous contributions by foundations and individuals. The Sofronie Foundation and the Skoll Foundation got the appeal off to a great start by forming a funding partnership that matched reader donations up to a total of £375,000.

The Hunter Foundation, founded by Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish entrepreneur, similarly gave a £100,000 matching contribution, as did Peter Sherratt, a vice-chairman of Lehman Brothers and deputy chairman of the Camfed board. And another £100,000 was donated by Asif Aziz, the property owner whose interests include the Trocadero centre in London’s Leicester Square.

Camfed argues that educating girls is the quickest route to alleviating poverty in Africa, and this is backed by a growing body of academic research. Girls in Africa have traditionally had less access to education than boys. Yet each year at school is thought to increase an individual’s earning power by 10 per cent, and educating girls makes them less susceptible to Aids and likely to have healthier, better educated families of their own.

Camfed’s main work is in secondary education but it also provides support at primary level and is helping girls obtain training in running small rural businesses. It works closely with local institutions, which keeps its costs low (89 per cent of its budget goes directly to aid) and gives those on the ground a stake in its success.

Cotton says: “The FT has multiplied what we can achieve. It has put the issues of girls’ exclusion from education in Africa at the heart of its journalism, showing readers that this continuing injustice profoundly affects economies. Camfed has a new and powerful constituency among the readership. Our platforms at the UN, the Clinton Global Initiative and the World Economic Forum have been that much stronger with this serious journalism backing our cause.”

Thanks to FT readers, Camfed can now tell thousands of girls that their dream of a secondary education in 2008 is about to become a reality. One beneficiary is 13-year-old Rabecca, who is in Grade Eight at Musakanya Basic School in Zambia’s Mpika District. Her mother is dead and her father is terminally ill in hospital. She lives with her aunt.

When she heard that she was going to be supported by Camfed this year, she exclaimed: “This is a dream come true! I really need help because I don’t know for how long my father will live. Thank you Camfed for your help.”

Stories like this provide a very real return on readers’ philanthropic investment. Again, thank you very much.