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Betty
Makoni is a renowned activist, director and founder of the Girl-Child
Network. Founded in 1998, GCN is a girls' rights organization with a
membership of 20,000 girls across Zimbabwe. GCN
presents a unique model of girls clubs and villages that support the
empowerment of girls in the home, school and community. GCN supports
the eradication of all forms of abuse that impede the full physical,
emotional and spiritual growth and development of girls. The
organization uses a human rights based approach to address gender
inequalities in education and in all social, political and economic
spheres of life.
In
April, 2007, The World's Children's Prize for
the Rights of the Child, in a vote of 5.2 million children all
over the world, selected Betty Makoni as the recipient of this year's
Global Friend's Award. She becomes the first-ever
Zimbabwean to win the prize, the "Nobel" of children's
rights. Betty Makoni received the prize
because she, after being abused as a child herself, empowers girls to
demand their rights. She supports those who are exposed to abuse and
protects others from assault, forced marriage, trafficking and sexual
abuse.
The
Global Fund for Women gave GCN its first grant of $8,000 in November
of 1999. During our 8 year partnership, the GCN has received a total
of $85,000 in grants from the Global Fund for Women.
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• More than 15,000 girls have been able to go to school.
• 65 percent of orphaned, HIV+ and physically challenged girls received “excellent” scores on their 7th grade exams.
• In 2005, 200 girls living in abusive households benefited from the 24-hour emergency service.
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