The mentor

For Mzuvare Betty Makoni it sprang from a grave and terrible betrayal. As a child growing up in Zimbabwe in the 1970s she sold tomatoes and candles. Then at the age of only six she was raped by a local man in her neighbourhood. The crime, shamefully, was hushed up. She would later recall:

In time she would become a teacher, looking after classrooms of young girls. She knew what many of them were going through all too well; terrible crises of adolescence and outrage and, sadly, many had been through similar things to her. She became their trusted, compassionate confidante. In her classes, beyond the numbers and letters of the curriculum, the seed of something grew. It would, through care and application, become the Girl Child Network (GCN).

As the girls shared their stories and encouraged each other, as they spoke and were listened to, something wonderful happened. Girls who appeared to be at risk of going off the rails found a new strength and purpose in this safe environment. Results improved; aspirations grew. Some girls found that they were particularly effective listeners and facilitators and they brought new girls into the network. Some even came to run their own groups.

To give you a sense of the scale of the problem we are dealing with here, consider GCN’s own statistics. Some 60 million girls are said to leave school before they are 15 years old. In Zimbabwe alone thousands are raped annually, with many going unreported. Genital mutilation, child marriage and other ‘harmful cultural practices’ mean that girls are five times more likely to be exposed to HIV/AIDS than boys. Girls in the classroom may be encouraged to marry or be raped by teachers.