Betty Makoni
2008 Recipient of Amnesty International USA's Ginetta Sagan Award for Women's and Children's Rights
© Marcel Molle
“We are transforming victims into survivors, survivors into leaders. We help girls stand on their own feet and fight back against violence and exploitation.” – Betty Makoni, founder, Girl Child Network of Zimbabwe
Betty Makoni, a former schoolteacher, is helping tens of thousands of girls in Zimbabwe fight back against sexual exploitation, poverty and violence through a supportive network of school-based clubs that empowers girls to stay in school and resist attitudes that condone abuse of women and girls. Makoni's Girl Child Network covers school fees and supplies for girls, offers safe houses for counseling and rehabilitation of abused girls and exposes alleged cases of sexual violence and abuse. In ten years, the program has spread to most of the country's rural districts and enrolls 35,000 girls today.
Makoni, 37, started the Girl Child Network with six girls in 1998. Since then, it has served 500,000 girls of all ages -- 3,000 of them have become doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals, she says. The program is now being replicated in diverse countries, including Canada, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden and the United States.
As a schoolteacher, Makoni seized upon the idea for a non-profit network to fight violence, especially rape, when she saw that two-thirds of her female students had left school by the end of a year because of rape and other violence, extreme poverty or the HIV/AIDS infection, which affects one out of every five adults, most of them women, in Zimbabwe. By 1999, Makoni had left teaching to devote herself full time to the Girl Child Network, which today has 30 staff members.
Makoni herself was sexually abused at age six by a local shop owner, then lost her own mother three years later to abuse in her own home. She realized that unless attitudes in her country were changed and women began to speak up against violence in the home and the community, the abuse would continue with impunity.
She believes helping girls and young women speak out against violence and rape is the first step toward this change.
"My own mother would not even talk about it [the violence]. I knew I had to find a way to help girls in the next generation change this attitude or the violence would continue," said Makoni.
In Zimbabwe, Makoni says the justice system, media and law enforcement work together to repress girls, and turn a blind-eye to discrimination, abuse and exploitation. Through the Girl Child Network programs, young girls are given information and support that builds their confidence to challenge abuse and to support and uplift one another. The network also provides legal support for victims of abuse and violence, and works to fight discrimination and violence against girls and women more broadly through legislative changes.
Makoni has spoken out against abuse perpetrated in the name of culture, religion or superstitious beliefs - especially the belief that sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS. In addition to rapes, says Makoni, girls have been killed in the belief that a virgin's blood will cure AIDS.
Makoni's work has attracted financial support and recognition from international foundations and organizations. She won the 2007 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, was featured in last year's book Women Who Light the Dark (PowerHouse Books), and a prize has been established in her name to honor others fighting sexual violence. She believes empowerment through education helps girls resist early marriage and sexual exploitation - for example, when poor girls are offered money in exchange for sexual favors.
Makoni has established three "safe homes" to shelter girls who were abused or raped. She and her team have rescued and sheltered 25,000 girls, providing counseling, schooling and rehabilitation in the homes.
Makoni's drive to help girls succeed and escape victimhood is rooted in personal experience. With little support from family or her community, she was determined to get an education and covered her own mandatory school fees by selling fruits and vegetables.
Through determination and the strength of her ability, Makoni forged ahead with her education (in Zimbabwe, 20 percent of girls do not even go to school), obtaining her B.A. with special honors at the University of Zimbabwe. After college, she started teaching in an elementary school in the Harare suburb of Chitungwiza.
Makoni has publicly exposed alleged sexual crimes by powerful men, including by officials in President Robert Mugabe's government.
Speaking out against such well-connected abusers takes enormous courage in a country where sexual predators are so often shielded from repercussions for their crimes. Despite the support Makoni has garnered from some government officials, local councils and tribal leaders, her work puts her at considerable risk for retaliation. She has been repeatedly threatened, detained, and arrested. Her home has been broken into in an attempt to frighten her and her family.
Most recently, and not without irony, she was imprisoned in the fall of 2007 for violating Zimbabwe's child protection laws for helping broadcast the testimonies of eight young rape victims on national television.
Makoni is an inspiring speaker, gifted organizer and fearless leader. In Zimbabwe, she is a standard bearer for young women. Although Betty is working in Zimbabwe, her struggle -- for a society that values and nurtures girls as much as it does boys -- is universal.
More updates to come on Betty Makoni’s Ginetta Sagan Fund United States tour throughout April & May 2008. Please check back to this site or email gsf@aiusa.org for further information.
