BETTY MAKONI

NOMINATED • PAGES 66 – 91
BETTY
MAKONI
Bang!
Betty Makoni awoke with a start. It was the middle of the night in the poor neighbourhood of
Chitungwiza outside Zimbabwe’s capital city,
Harare. She heard it again: Bang! And again:
Bang! The children began to cry. Just a few metres
from Betty’s bed, masked men were breaking
through the front door with an axe.
Fighting for girls’ rights can be dangerous!
O
nce the door had been
broken down, four
men in balaclavas with
axes and machete knives
burst in to the little house.
One of the men pointed at
Betty and shouted,
“We’re going to kill you!
You’re the woman that causes
nothing but trouble for us!”
Betty and her children
were terrified. They shouted
for help. When one of the
men reached out for her oneyear-old son, Betty panicked.
“I thought they were going
to kill him or kidnap him.
But we were lucky. My husband was meant to be away,
and the men must have
known that. But when they
saw that he was home they
ran away.”
This happened four years
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
WHY IS BETTY MAKONI BEING NOMINATED?
Betty Makoni is being nominated for the 2007 WCPRC
for her long struggle for girls in Zimbabwe to be freed
from abuse and to have the same opportunities in life as
boys. Through the Girl Child Network (GCN) Betty has
built three safe villages (also called empowerment villages) for very vulnerable girls and started 500 girls’
clubs with 30,000 members, mostly in rural areas and in
poor townships. Betty saves girls from child labour,
forced marriage, abuse, trafficking and sexual assault.
She gives girls food, clothes, medical care, a home, the
chance to go to school, and safety. Above all, she gives
girls courage and strength to demand respect for their
rights. Tens of thousands of girls have found their way to
a better life because of Betty’s work. She and GCN
speak out on behalf of girls in Zimbabwe by constantly
encouraging the government and different organisa-
tions to take care of the country’s girls. But not everyone
likes Betty’s work. She lives dangerously and she is
constantly being threatened because of her work.
zambia
namibia
Victoria Falls
Harare
Chitungwiza
Hwange
Chitsotso
Zimbabwe
botswana
66
south africa
mozambique
Boys’ and girls’ names
“The names we use in Zimbabwe say
a lot about how we see boys and girls,”
says Betty.
BOYS’ NAMES: MEANING:
Tawanda
Garikai
Talent
GIRLS’ NAMES:
MEANING:
Netsai
Muchaneta
Tampuzai
Silence
Girls bring problems
You will become weary
We become poor
Silence
Betty (on the left) the year
she started working.
ago, and it’s just one of the
many times Betty’s life has
been in danger because of
her struggle for girls’ rights.
But she doesn’t give up.
“I know myself how it
feels to have your rights violated. There’s nothing
worse, not even death.
That’s why I keep going!”
Sold vegetables
Betty’s own story starts in
the poor neighbourhood of
Chitungwiza. She lived there
with her parents and younger siblings. But they were not
a happy family.
“My childhood was terrible. My father beat my
mother almost every night.
Mum couldn’t manage, so I
had to start helping out at
home at a
young age.
The family is growing
and is happy
We are well
Talent
When I was only five years
old I used to clean and cook
and carry my younger siblings on my back at the same
time. Mum and Dad used to
beat us children too. I never
felt safe when I was young.”
Just like many other girls
in her neighbourhood, Betty
had to start working. From
the age of five she walked
around selling vegetables
and candles every evening.
“While the girls were
working we could see the
boys our age playing. I
thought it was
incredibly unfair!”
The terrible man
One evening
when Betty
was six
years old,
something
awful happened.
After several hours selling
their goods, she and some
friends arrived at their last
customer. It was a man who
owned a little shop.
“There were ten of us, all
girls. Once we were all in the
shop the man suddenly
locked the door. He took out
a knife and said that he
would kill anyone who
screamed or tried to resist.
Then he turned off the light.
Everything went pitch black.
We were scared to death but
we didn’t dare call for help.
He raped us, one after
another. In the end we managed to get away. Everyone
ran home, and we never
talked to each other about
what had happened.”
“When I got home there
was no-one to talk to. Dad
wasn’t home and Mum was
asleep. I could see that they
had been fighting again. I
Betty and the girls from the
girls’ club march for girls’
rights.
67
Betty has been threatened many times, even with death, because she fights for girls’ rights.
cried silently so that I didn’t
wake anyone. I felt dirty and
totally abandoned. When I
finally did fall asleep I had
horrific dreams.”
Fighting for girls
Despite everything that had
happened, Betty continued
to work every evening. When
she started school she used
some of the money she had
earned to pay her school
fees. It wasn’t always enough,
and Betty was often sent
home from school because
she couldn’t pay.
“I was always tired but I
carried on because I knew
that life could be better, if
only I could manage to finish school.”
The years went by and the
nightmares continued. She
often thought about how
wrong it was that a grown
man had hurt her so much.
She also thought about how
wrong it was that her mum
was always getting beaten.
Betty decided that one day
68
she would fight for a better
life for girls and women in
Zimbabwe.
The girls’ club
When Betty was 24 she
started work as a teacher.
She saw how hard things
were for the girls. As soon as
a family had difficulty paying the children’s school
fees, it was always the girls
who had to quit school
while their brothers carried
on. Soon the girls in Betty’s
class started to talk to her
about their problems. They
told her about the male
teachers who took advantage of them and about how
hard it was for them to dare
to speak up when the boys
were around.
“Then I suggested that we
girls should meet up and
talk about things that are
important to us. I suggested
that we could have a club
where girls take care of each
other and help each other if
something bad happens to
one of them. A club where
they would grow strong and
dare to demand the same
rights in life as the boys.
They thought it was a great
idea. There were ten of us
who started meeting up a
couple of times a week,
either at school or at my
house.”
“Slowly but surely, girls
who had been subjected to
rape and abuse started to
come forward and tell us
about it. We supported the
girls and helped them to
pluck up the courage to
report the crime to the
police. The men responsible
ended up behind bars, and
suddenly several of the male
teachers quit their jobs at the
school. They must have been
too scared to stay on!”
The Girl Child Network
The news of Betty’s girls’
club spread through the
school like wildfire. Soon
over a hundred girls had
joined. And it wasn’t long
before girls’ clubs started up
at other schools, first in
Chitungwiza and then all
over Zimbabwe.
“In 1999 I decided to start
the Girl Child Network
(GCN) so that all the girls’
clubs could support each
other.”
“That same year I did a
200 km walk with 500 girls,
out in the rural areas. We
walked from village to village telling people about
girls’ rights and about what
we do at our girls’ clubs. At
night we slept on the floor
in the village schools. We
were on the road for seventeen days and after that
there were loads of girls
who wanted to start their
own clubs. Today there
are 500 girls’ clubs with
30,000 members all over
Zimbabwe!”
The clubs report to the Girl
Child Network if anyone
has been raped, had to quit
school, or been forced to get
married or start working. If
anyone needs help to pay for
school fees, clothes, shoes or
food, all the other girls in
the group try to help them
out. If they can’t manage it,
they contact Betty. 5000
girls are able to go to school
and eat their fill thanks to
the Girl Child Network.
The safe villages
Betty soon realised that
many of the girls who were
saved from abuse, child
labour, forced marriage and
rape needed a safe place to
live. Often the girls couldn’t
return to their families.
Since Betty made sure that
many of those who committed crimes ended up in prison, she was afraid that they
would come back to take
revenge on the girls later.
So in 2001, the first ‘safe
village’ was created. Since
then two more villages have
been built in other parts of
Zimbabwe.
“There are 60 girls who
have suffered some kind of
abuse who live in the safe
villages. We want to offer
the girls safety and a chance
to grow up as strong, independent women.”
Since Betty started the
first girls’ club in 1998, her
struggle has opened the door
to a better life for tens of
thousands of girls.
Betty never hesitates to
point the finger at people
Soon the first girls’ club grew
from ten members to a hundred. And since Betty and
500 girls walked 200km, from
village to village, many new
clubs have been founded.
We’re angry!
The Girl Child Network reports that 6000 girls are
raped in Zimbabwe every year. However Betty
believes the figure could be as high as 30,000, since
a great many girls who are raped don’t dare to tell
anyone about it. Many are afraid of being rejected
and abandoned if they tell anyone, since
some people believe that anyone who
has been raped is ’dirty’.
“The girls in the Girl Child Network hold
about 20 major marches every year. They
march to show that they are angry about
girls being raped in this country. And they
demand that politicians and everyone
else that lives in Zimbabwe does something about it! ” says Betty.
69
who treat girls badly, even if
they are powerful politicians. She has made plenty
of enemies and has had lots
of threatening phone calls in
the middle of the night. Cars
follow her around and the
police carry out raids on her
office. Betty has to have people around her to protect her
at all times. Her children
can’t even walk to school on
their own as she is afraid
something could happen to
them.
“But I’m not going to let
myself get scared. My dream
is for Zimbabwe to be a
country where boys and girls
have the same opportunities
in life. But every day I get
about ten phone calls from
girls who have been raped.
It’s also harder for girls to go
to school. They get married
off or forced to work
instead. There’s a war being
fought against girls here.
And as long as what happened to me when I was little continues to happen to
girls, I’ll keep fighting for
them!” 
The Girl Child Network doesn’t
let anyone down!
“At the beginning the idea
was that all the girls’ club
members would pay
50,000 Zimbabwean dollars (50 US cents) every
year. That’s not really
much money, and we
needed it. But it was still
too much for many of the
poorest girls in the rural
areas. Since it’s those
girls who are most at risk
of being taken advantage
of, they need the girls’ club
more than anyone else. So
that we didn’t let them
down, we decided to stop
charging a fee. Instead,
every club tries to earn a
bit of money to help those
in need. Some grow and
sell vegetables, others
make baskets and sell
them,” explains Betty.
Betty Makoni
Girls treated badly all over the world
“Girls are discriminated against all over the world
for two reasons: because they are children and
because they are girls. This means that girls may be
the most vulnerable group in society,” says Betty
Makoni.
A
lthough all countries,
including Zimbabwe,
have laws banning discrimination against girls, they are
still treated badly. Many girls
are forced into early marriage, genital mutilation, rape
and the worst kinds of child
labour, like prostitution.
70
Of the 121 million children
in the world who don’t go to
school, 65 million are girls.
In Africa south of the Sahara
Desert, where Zimbabwe is,
there are at least 24 million
girls who don’t go to school.
Of the 150 million children
who quit school before the
fifth grade, 100 million are
girls. Girls (and boys) who
don’t learn to read and write
can be tricked and taken
advantage of more easily. Of
the 875 million adults in the
world who can’t read or write,
almost 600 million are women.
All over the world, women
are usually not as well-paid
as men, even when they do
exactly the same job.
Although women carry out
two-thirds of the world’s
work they only earn a tenth of
the world’s income. Men
have more power, both in
politics and in the economy,
since it’s more common that
managers and leaders are
men.
The fact that girls are treated worse than boys goes
against the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child.
It states that everyone is
born equal and should have
the same opportunities in
life, regardless of whether
you are a boy or a girl.
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : PAUL BLOMGREN
The girls’ holy mountain
In eastern Zimbabwe there is a mountain called
Chitsotso. It is the girls’ holy mountain. This is
the story of the princesses who live in Betty’s
safe village at the foot of the mountain…
T
here was once a chief
called Gunguwo. He
lived in the 17th century in the country
that is now called Tanzania.
One day, Gunguwo went off
on a long journey with his
sister Masere and his people.
The chief and his sister
fought against other chiefdoms along the way. They
won many battles. Finally,
they arrived at a beautiful
place where they decided to
stay, and they called it
Makoni. This was at the
foot of a mountain, in the
country that we now call
Zimbabwe.
Chief Gunguwo was deeply impressed by his sister’s
great wisdom and strength
in the battles they had
fought along the way. He
realised that he would never
have made it to this new,
beautiful place without her
help. So he decided to give
her the title of Muzvare,
which means princess. He
said, “This is my sister and
we fought side by side. She is
my equal.”
As proof that he meant
what he said he gave his sister a large piece of land. On
this land lay the mountain
which would later come to
be called Chitsotso. It was
very unusual for women to
own land and have power,
but all the men in Makoni
had great respect for the
princess. Since they respected the princess, they also
treated the other women in
the area well.
out to gather firewood, they
often climbed the mountain
of the first princess and sat
there to talk. That’s why the
mountain came to be known
as Chitsotso, which means
“wood”. It was the princesses’ own mountain, and no
man was allowed to be there
without their permission.
There they could talk about
everything that was important to them.
The mountain was also
holy. The people of Makoni
believed the princesses had
power over the rain. And it
was on the mountain that
the princesses carried out
their rain ceremony every
year. They killed a cow and
prayed to the spirits of earlier princesses for rain. If both
the living and the dead princesses were satisfied with
their people, they allowed
the rain to come. If they
were not satisfied, the rain
didn’t come. Since the people were farmers, they
Betty with the girls from the safe
village at the girls’ holy mountain.
The mountain of princesses
Chief Gunguwo’s four sons
became chiefs after him.
When their daughters went
71
on t
Tariro, 13
Good at: Maths
and English.
Wants to be:
A teacher.
Princess Betty Makoni is up on Chitsotso with
some of the girls who live in the safe village at the
foot of the mountain. She asks them about their
dreams.
Pamela, 14
with her daughter
Samantha, 6 months
Good at: Cooking and
taking care of children.
Wants to be: A flight
attendant.
N
“
ever forget that this is
your holy mountain,
nobody can take it
away from you. If you feel
afraid or unwell, you should
come up here. Do you sometimes feel small, like you’re
not worth anything? Like you
are not as good as others?”
The girls nod. They often
feel small and sometimes
worthless.
“Then you really should
come up here. Look around!
When you’re up here you’re
higher than all others. You
are as important as anyone
else, and you can be whatever you want to be! Why
don’t you tell me what you’re
good at, and what you’d like
to do in the future? What
are your dreams?”
Nomsa, 16
Good at: Netball
and singing.
Wants to be:
A soldier.
depended heavily on the
rain. To make sure that the
rain would come, the people
treated the princesses and
all the women in the chiefdom well.
Princess Betty
One day, almost 400 years
after chief Gunguwo gave
the mountain to his sister
Masere, the chief of Makoni
read about a woman in
Chitungwiza township in
the newspaper. She fought
72
for girls who had a hard life.
That woman was called
Betty Makoni. The chief
realised then that Betty was
a princess, and descendant
of chief Gunguwo’s youngest son.
One day, Betty travelled
to the Makoni chiefdom.
“I told them about my
plans to create a safe village
for girls who have a really
hard life. Then the chief
said, ‘We have been waiting
for you. You are the princess
who is going to make sure
that the power of girls and
women lives on here in
Makoni! We want you to
build your safe place for
girls here, on the princesses’
ground beside Chitsotso.
It has always been a holy
place for girls, and we give
you this mountain so that
you can take care of girls
who need help.’
“I built the first safe village
below the mountain, and
today there are twenty girls
living there. It used to be that
only girls like me, daughters
of chiefs, were princesses in
Makoni. But since the girls
in the safe village guard
Chitsotso when I’m not
there, they are also seen as
princesses. And for me, all
the girls in the village really
are princesses who should
be treated well. All the girls
in the world should be treated like princesses!” says
Betty Makoni. 
“I’m good at singing and
I’d like to be a teacher,” says
Charity.
“Sing for us!” says Betty.
Charity shyly sings a song
and everyone claps. Then
she beams with pride.
“I like running, and I want
to be a lawyer when i grow
up,” says Rumbidzai.
“Alright then, show us
how fast you are!” says
Betty.
Rumbidzai kicks off her
shoes and runs as fast as she
can. Everyone cheers!
Finally, all the girls have
said what they are good at.
Betty smiles.
“Never forget this. You
are all good at something,
and you’re great just the way
you are! I promise we’ll do
everything we can to make
sure each one of you
achieves your
dreams!” 
Tendai, 15
Good at: Playing
football and
singing.
Wants to be:
An air marshal.
Rumbidzai, 17
Good at: Running
and swimming.
Wants to be:
A lawyer.
Charity, 12
Good at: Singing.
Wants to be:
A teacher.
A child dies every 15 minutes
“We still have a rain ceremony on 19 September every year. And
when one of the girls in
our safe villages dies,
they always take a special jar from the rain
ceremony to the grave
with them. So far, five of
our girls have passed
away. Some of them
had AIDS. Many of the
girls in Zimbabwe who
get raped get HIV/
AIDS,” says Betty.
Zimbabwe is one of
the worst-affected
countries in the world in
terms of HIV/AIDS. A
quarter of the popula-
tion – 2 million people –
is HIV positive. 120,000
of these are children
under the age of 15.
A child dies of AIDS
every 15 minutes, and
1.3 million children are
orphans.
Jar from the rain ceremony.
73
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
n the mountain
Memory, 13
with her son Tinashe,
3 months
Good at: Sewing and
giving first aid.
Wants to be: The leader
of a safe village for girls,
like Betty!
“ Betty saved my life!”
“I’ll never forget when I saw Tsitsi for the
first time. She was lying on my sofa and
looked so small and scared. She was eight
years old, and had been beaten so badly that
she had deep wounds on her back. I thought
she was going to die,” says Betty.
T
ears ran down
Tsitsi’s cheeks as
Betty bathed her
wounds. After a
while, Betty started to tell
Tsitsi about how she had
been abused at home when
she was a little girl. Tsitsi lay
silently on the sofa, but after
a few hours she dared to tell
Betty what had happened...
Mother died
Tsitsi had lived with her
mother in a little house in
Chitungwiza. Her father
didn’t live with them but he
74
used to visit them often.
Sometimes he also gave them
money. She liked her father,
but she loved her mother. The
two of them were best friends.
When Tsitsi was in first
grade, her mother fell ill.
“I cooked food and helped
my mum as much as I could,
but one day she just died.
That same evening, Dad
came and took me back to
his house. I missed Mum so
incredibly much. At the same
time, I was glad I had a father
who could take care of me.”
For the first little while,
Tsitsi’s father was kind.
“He didn’t really comfort
me, but he gave me food and
helped me so that I could
keep going to school. We
didn’t talk that much, but I
felt safe. I thought that life
would probably be okay
after all.”
After a couple of months
Tsitsi’s father became ill,
and everything changed. He
didn’t have a permanent job
and started to have problems paying rent for the
house. It even became hard
to buy food and the other
things they needed. He
blamed Tsitsi for all the bad
things that happened.
Started to beat her
“Dad got angry about nothing. If I played with my
friends for too long he went
crazy. And even when I
hadn’t done anything wrong
he still shouted at me. He
even started to make things
up. He claimed that I had
wet the bed, even if I hadn’t.
He would beat me as a punishment. He used his belt or
a stick, and hit me on the
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : PAUL BLOMGREN
Together…
… the girls in the safe village sweep the yard…
...and wash the
dishes.
back, the chest… everywhere. I was in agony but I
didn’t dare call for help. He
said it would get worse if I
did.”
“Dad beat me almost every evening. I hoped that he
would stop if I was extra
good. I helped with everything – cleaned, did the
shopping, and cooked the
food. When he was sick I
took care of him. But he beat
me anyway.”
One evening things got
even worse than usual.
“I had just gone to bed
when he told me to come
and lie down on his bed. At
first I didn’t understand
what he meant. Then I realised that he wanted to do
bad things to me. When I
refused, he hit me with an
electrical cable. At the same
time, he held up a knife and
said that he would kill me if
I screamed. I couldn’t defend
myself, and in the end he did
it. My own father.”
Tsitsi hurried to school
early the next morning
before her father woke up,
but she didn’t dare to tell
anyone what had happened.
“I knew that I had to go
home to Dad again, since I
didn’t have anywhere else to
go. I hoped it would never
happen again.”
On the way home from
school, Tsitsi searched for
coins on the street.
“I thought that if I could
give Dad some medicine he’d
be nice to me. By the time I
got home I had enough money to buy a couple of pills.
But it didn’t help. That night
“Every afternoon after
school we sit around the fire
and wait for the food to
cook. We tell stories and
sing. I love sitting here with
the other girls,” says Tsitsi.
You can join in the fun
around the fire in Tsitsi’s
village, at
www.childrensworld.org
75
he did it again. And the next
night, and the next...”
Finally Tsitsi told her
teacher, who called Betty
Makoni straight away. That
very afternoon, Girl Child
Network came and collected
Tsitsi from school.
Finally saved
“Betty saved my life and I
love her! She took me to hospital and took care of me.
But for the first while I was
often sad and I had nightmares. At first I lived in a
‘safe house’ in Chitungwiza
Tsitsi, 11
for six months, but then I
moved here to one of Betty’s
safe villages. There are 20 of
us girls living in the village,
and we do everything
together like a family. We
play, clean, wash the dishes,
sleep, go to school... every-
Remembers her mum
Lives: In one of Betty’s safe
villages for girls.
Loves: Going to school.
Hates: Adults who treat
children badly.
Worst thing that’s
happened: When my own
father abused me.
Best thing that’s happened:
When I pass exams at school.
Looks up to: Betty Makoni!
Wants to be: A leader of a
safe village for girls, or a pilot.
Dream: That adults will stop
taking advantage of children.
“My mum was a seamstress
and she taught me to sew.
I think of her every time I sew.
I miss her so much. I don’t
miss dad at all. Betty helped
me to pluck up the courage to
report him to the police. He
ended up in jail, but since he
was so ill it wasn’t long
before he died.”
Play the bottle game!
2
1
3
Newspaper ball
“It only took a few minutes to
make this ball. I pressed newspaper into a bag. We use the
ball when we play the bottle
game,” says Tsitsi.
76
4
thing! All of us have had a
hard time and we understand each other.”
“I love playing with the
others. It helps me forget
everything that happened
with my dad. It’s the same in
school. I concentrate on
learning new things there
instead of thinking about
the past. When I miss my
mum and feel sad, I go and
talk to one of the three village mothers. It feels great to
know that there’s always
someone here who cares
about me. The village mothers take care of us, cook our
food and wake us in the
morning so that we’re not
late for school. Before we go
they make sure that our uniforms are right and that
T
we’ve got our books. But
most of all, they give us love.
I feel happy and safe here.”
“I’m at my happiest when
Betty comes to visit. She is
like a mother to me. Without
Betty, I would probably have
ended up on the street and
had to scavenge for food in
bins. That is a terrible way
to live, and lots of the girls
who live on the street are
taken advantage of by
grown-ups. If she hadn’t
saved me I think I would
have died on the street.
When I grow up I want to
lead one of Betty’s safe villages for girls!” 
he Bottle game is played on a gravel or sand pitch. An
empty plastic bottle is placed in the middle of the pitch.
Two teams, with as many members as you like, play
against each other. The first team is divided into two groups
who stand fifteen metres apart with the bottle in the middle.
They are called the ‘outer team’ and they throw the ball back
and forth to each other. Between them stand the ‘inner team’.
They have to try not to get hit when someone in the outer
team suddenly throws the ball at them. Anyone who gets hit
is out. When everyone in the inner team is out, the outer team
has won and the teams swap places.
The inner team can rescue members of their team who are
out. When the outer team throw the ball, someone from the
inner team has to catch it in their hands, without being hit
anywhere else. The person who catches the ball throws it as
far away as they can. While the outer team run to fetch the
ball, the inner team fill the plastic bottle with sand and then
pour the sand straight out again. If the inner team manage to
do all of this before the outer team have brought the ball
back, then they rescue everyone who is out, and they are
allowed to continue the game!
60 girls in three villages
“I love Tsitsi. We are so close. She reminds me so
much of myself when I was small. Every time I see her
it gives me energy to work even harder for girls’ rights.
There are 60 girls living in our three safe villages, and
all of them have experienced something similar to
Tsitsi. In the villages they get protection and support
so that they can grow up to be strong. We try to help
the girls move in with family members or relatives, but
if that’s not possible they stay in the village until they
can manage on their own,” says Betty.
Loves high rises
“My favourite place is our capital city, Harare. I like the
high rise buildings and there is electricity there. The
streets are lit up and the people who live there can
watch TV. We don’t have electricity yet in the village, but
Betty said that we’ll have it soon. Then we’ll be able to
watch TV too,” says Tsitsi.
“When we get electricity we’ll make sure
that the villages around
us get the good of it
too. We’re going to
build a mill where the
farmers can grind
their maize. That will
save them from travelling a long way to
do it. The money
we earn from the
mill will mean that
we can continue
to pay for food,
school fees and
77
Lisa
fights for girls’
rights
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : PAUL BLOMGREN
“Having your rights respected means getting
to be who you want to be, without anyone
pushing you down,” says Lisa.
And Lisa knows who she wants to be.
“I want to be like Betty Makoni. She’s my
hero! I too want to be someone who helps
girls to stand up for their rights.”
I
t’s lunchtime at Lisa’s
school in the mountains
of eastern Zimbabwe.
The girls from the girls’
club begin to gather on the
football pitch, as they do
every Monday and
Wednesday. Within a few
minutes, over a hundred
girls are sitting in small
groups talking. After a
while, Lisa gets up. She
stretches one arm up
towards the sky and shouts:
“Girl child!”
The others get up and
reply:
78
“Sky is the limit!”
They shout so loud that
the boys playing football a
little further away stop playing and sit at the side of the
pitch, surprised.
“Girl Child!” shouts Lisa
again.
“Sky is the limit!” everyone
replies, even louder this time.
When they have sat down,
Lisa welcomes everyone to
the meeting. She starts with
a good piece of news:
“You know we’ve been
The sky really is the limit for
these girls!
selling books and pens for
the last little while, and I
just want to tell you that we
have now gathered enough
money to pay school fees for
twelve of our friends. Now
they can keep going to
school a while longer! Isn’t
that great?”
The twelve girls stand up,
and it seems like the other
girls’ applause is never going
to end.
Manage on their own
When the clapping has died
down, Lisa continues by
asking if anyone has a prob-
Lisa, 12
It’s Lisa’s job to fetch water.
lem, or if they know anyone
else who needs help. One of
the girls stands up:
“A girl called Grace has
stopped coming to school
and I don’t know why. We
must make sure that nothing
bad has happened to her.
Maybe we can write a letter
to her mum?”
They talk for a little while
about what they should do
and decide that the best
thing is probably to send a
letter.
“A girl called Evelyn has
had to go to the city to work
as a maid. I think we should
give her some money so that
she can come back to the
village and start school
again,” says another girl.
“I don’t have any shoes,”
says a little girl shyly, and
sits quickly back down.
Someone suggests that
CD for girls’ rights!
Lisa and twelve other girls in her girls’ club got to travel to
the capital city, Harare, to record one of the songs on a
CD for girls’ rights. The CD is called Wake Up Girls,
because girls need to wake up and know their rights.
The song that Lisa sings on is called Rega Kuchema
(Stop Crying).
“My dream is to become a doctor, but I could
also imagine becoming a pop star. It was so cool
to be in the studio,” says Lisa.
Listen to Lisa’s song at
www.childrensworld.org
they should ask Betty for
more money so that they can
solve the problems. But then
Lisa gets up again:
“No, we can’t just ask for
help the whole time. We
have to fi nd our own ways of
making money. We need to
work harder selling pens,
books and vegetables so
that we can help even more
people!”
Everyone nods and agrees.
Lives: In Makoni village, beside
the girls’ holy mountain, Chitsotso.
Loves: My mum.
Hates: When I´m ill and can’t
go to school.
Worst thing that’s happened:
That dad hit mum.
Best thing that’s happened:
When I was chosen to be one of
the leaders of all the girls’ clubs
in Zimbabwe.
Looks up to: My hero Betty
Makoni!
Wants to be: A doctor.
Dream: That all girls all over
the world will become strong
and know their rights.
Mum was beaten
When Lisa gets home from
school, her mum, Fortunate,
has already cooked dinner –
maize and beans.
Afterwards Lisa washes the
dishes before going out to
water the vegetable patch.
“I try to help mum as
much as I can. I love her.
And she’s alone,” says Lisa,
looking down at the ground.
A few years have passed
since the terrible things that
happened to her mum, but
she still fi nds it hard thinking about it. Lisa still has
nightmares and often wakes
up in the middle of the
night.
“I was only four when
it started. My dad drank
and he used to beat my
mum almost every night.
Sometimes mum was
79
Dolls just
for girls?
Lisa and her mum sew dolls’ clothes.
unconscious on the floor,
but he just carried on hitting
her. When I cried and shouted at him to stop, he went
crazy. He chased me and my
brother away from the
house. Then we weren’t
allowed in again. Even if it
was cold, even in the middle
of winter, we had to lie and
sleep on the veranda outside
the house. We lay really
close together to try to keep
warm, but it was impossible
to sleep. We were so cold
that we shivered, and we
could hear mum screaming
The Girl Child Network
tries to help the very poorest girls, especially in the
rural areas. There are 120
girls in Lisa’s club. When
Betty Makoni comes to
one of their meetings she
asks what their biggest
problems are and what the
girls most need help with.
Their reply was:
80
in the house. The
worst thing was
that I couldn’t do
anything to help
her.”
The girls’ club
Things were awful for three
years. But one day, Lisa’s
mum decided she wasn’t
going to let herself be beaten
any more.
“I both love and admire
mum for being so strong
that she dared to get up and
say ‘that’s enough’. That he
never got to hit her again,
and that he had to go and
leave the family in peace.”
The same year that Lisa’s
dad moved out, she joined
the Girl Child Network’s
girls’ club at school. She
was only seven at the time.
“I wanted to do something so that no girl ever
has to experience the terri-
“The best thing I own is my
doll Jennifer. I got her from
my mum when I was six.
Often on Sundays after
church my mum and I sew
new dresses for Jennifer.
I love my doll, but I think it
should be okay for girls to
play with cars. And for boys
to play with dolls. But parents here really don’t think
that’s okay.
I think that girls are given
dolls because people want
to prepare us for becoming
mothers and taking care of
children. Boys get their toys
so that they can practice for
doing difficult technical jobs.
I don’t understand that at all.
It’s so crazy! Girls can do
technical things too. It is my
dream for girls all over
the world to be able
to train for those
jobs that are
almost always
done by boys at the
moment. I think we
should become
doctors, pilots,
engineers and
even presidents!”
How are the girls?
42 have no shoes
41 have no school uniform
32 have no underwear
46 have no school books
22 are going to be sent
home from school because
they haven’t paid their fees
11 have lost both parents
33 have lost their father
8 have lost their mother
11 have a seriously ill mother
1 has a seriously ill father
1 has a seriously ill father
and mother
62 are ill themselves
“It’s so sad that all of you
who fight so hard to be able
to go to school come to this
meeting both barefoot and
hungry. I’m so proud of you,
that you still manage to meet
and fight for your rights,”
says Betty.
Cars just for boys?
The wheels of the wire car kick up dust as 12-year-old
Award proudly steers his car.
“I make these cars myself. It takes three days to make a
car. First I collect the steel wire that we use when we build
houses. Then I start to bend it. The wheels are made from
old plastic bottle tops. To make the back wheels wider
I join four lids together by carefully melting the seams over
the fire. When the steering mechanism is finished, the car
is ready to drive. I’m really careful with the car – it’s my
only toy.”
ble things my mum went
through. I knew that the
GCN fought for girls’ rights,
so the girls’ club was perfect
for me. The club is a place
where we girls can talk
about the things that are
important to us. We take
care of each other and help
each other to be strong. In
the girls’ club we’re safe.
Outside the clubs, girls
aren’t at all safe in
Zimbabwe. We are raped,
abused and have to do all
the house work while the
boys play and have fun. If
a family doesn’t have much
money it’s always the boys
that get to go to school. The
girls have to start working
or are married off to some
older man. The man pays
lobola (a dowry) to the girl’s
family, and the parents then
use that money for the boys’
school fees. It’s so terribly
unfair! I get so angry when I
think about it!”
Loves Zimbabwe
“Boys and girls are worth
the same, and both want to
have a good future. We girls
have to explain this to our
parents and everyone else.
Lisa’s club helps girls
“Sometimes we get money
from Betty. Then we buy
school books and pens and
we sell them. But we also sell
vegetables from our own
vegetable patches. We usually work on our vegetable
patches at breaktimes. While
helping others,
we also learn
about how to
grow vegetables. That
means that
we’ll be able to
manage better
when we’re finished school,
even if we
don’t get jobs.
We sell the
vegetables and books to our
parents and teachers. We
use the money to buy school
books and pens for the girls
who can’t afford them.
Sometimes we even pay
people’s school fees. With
the money we make by sell-
ing things, our club helps
twelve girls pay school fees
and buys school books and
pens for 30 girls.”
The girls’ club members sell
the vegetables that they
grow.
But it’s still unusual here for
girls to dare to say what they
think openly. Luckily
enough, we’ve got help.
Betty Makoni helps us to
dare to be confident and
What can
Lisa’s club do
with the money?
On a good day, Lisa and the
other girls can earn as much
as 5,000 Zimbawean dollars
($20 US) Here’s what they
can do with the money:
Pay school fees for one
term for 5 girls...
… or buy 27
exercise
books’ or
94 pencils or
31 pens!
81
Writing poetry
“We write lots of poems in the girls’ clubs,” says Lisa. If
something bad happens to one of us, it’s a good way of
explaining what happened. Every new member of the girls’
clubs gets a diary too. We write in our diaries about everything that happens in our lives, both good and bad things.
We write about our dreams, but if we or our friends have
been victims of violence or abuse we write about that too.
Lisa does
her homework.
Lisa saved me!
Every day when Lisa was on her way to school, she
saw how Christine was beaten in her home. She felt
that she had to do something, and one afternoon the
girls’ club knocked on Christine’s door…
demand our rights. She’s my
hero!”
“Despite all the problems
we have, I love Zimbabwe.
It’s incredibly beautiful here
and I wouldn’t want to live
anywhere else. I plan to stay
here and fight for a better
life for the girls here. And I
actually believe things will
get better in the future, even
if it takes a long time. I help
to arrange meetings and
marches where we tell peo-
ple about girls’ rights, but I
think we need to work even
harder. All girls must also
dare to start talking about
these problems with their
male friends. Because if the
boys know how hard things
are for us, I believe that
they’ll change. They’ll
become good men who take
care of their daughters and
wives in the future!” 
Safe village goats
“Many of the girls in my club live
in Betty’s safe village, which is
really nearby. The girls there don’t
just learn to grow vegetables – they also
take care of goats and chickens. They get
food from the goats and learn how to take
care of them, all in one go,”
says Lisa.
Beautiful baskets
Lisa’s club grows vegetables
and sells books. The girls in
other clubs weave baskets,
which they sell.
82
“Lisa and five other girls
stood at the door. I had
been beaten every day
since I was ten years
old. I didn’t know why
my mum did it and it
made me ill. When
Lisa asked Mum why
she beat me, she
didn’t answer. When
Mum didn’t reply, Lisa
threatened to phone
the police. She said that
they would put her in
prison. Mum got angry,
but I think more than anything she was scared,
because she agreed to
stop. Since then she has
never hit me again. Now
we’re friends and I love
my mum.
I think it was incredibly brave of Lisa to dare to
come to our house and tell
Mum to stop. If Lisa
hadn’t saved me I would
still be getting beaten.
Lisa and I hang out
together a lot at school.
We tell each other everything because we trust
each other.”
Christine, 12
Esther’s
future stolen
B
“
oth my parents died
when I was two. My
sister and I stayed on
in Mum and Dad’s
house and our uncles took
care of us. My brothers
moved to Harare to work.
I used to go to church with
my uncles every Sunday. It’s
the tradition in their church
to marry off young girls to
older men in the congregation. Since I had been a
member of the church since
I was little, I thought it was
normal, and the only right
thing to do. Nonetheless,
I thought that it was something that only happened to
other people. But one
Sunday last year, the old
men at church said it was my
turn.
I panicked and tried to run
away, but the adults trapped
me. I screamed and cried but
no-one cared. They threw
me in a car and drove away.
After a while we arrived at a
house. They said that my
husband lived there and
dropped me off.
I didn’t dare to do anything other than stay. He
slept with me and I was
afraid I would get pregnant.
How could I, an elevenyear-old, take care of a
child? I was worried and
cried. I thought about running away all the time, but
the house was out in the
bush.”
Saved by Betty
“After a few days, the man
went away to work. One
morning I was woken by a
woman shouting outside the
house. It was Betty. I was so
incredibly glad! She told me
that my brothers in Harare
had been absolutely furious
when they heard that I had
been married off. They
talked to a journalist who
wrote about it in the paper.
Betty had read the paper
and decided to save me. She
had been searching all night.
Betty took me to one of
her safe villages. I went to
school and I was really happy. Betty made sure that the
man who I had been married
to ended up in jail.
Now I live with my brothers and I go to a new school.
Nobody at school knows
that I used to be married. I
don’t want to talk about it
because I’m scared that no-
one will want to be with me
if they know. Scared that
they’ll tease me.
Now I’m doing well and
I’m so deeply grateful that
Betty saved me. If she hadn’t
helped me I’m sure my life
would have been awful. I
wouldn’t have been able to
continue at school, and what
kind of job can you get if
you haven’t got an education? No girl should be put
through that!
I can imagine getting married when I’m about 28.
But fi rst I’m going to fi nish
school and start working to
help girls. Just like Betty!” 
83
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
Esther was eleven years old when the elders in the church she
belonged to forced her to marry an old man.
“They stole her future,” says Betty Makoni. “Forced marriage is a very serious violation of the rights of the child. It
robs young girls of their dignity.”
Get married or get t
When Jacqueline went to school that Friday, she thought it was going to be just
another normal day. But after assembly in the morning, the headmaster came into
the sixth grade classroom…
T
he headmaster began
to call out names.
Those whose names
were called had to
stand up. Jacqueline realised
straight away it was the
pupils who couldn’t afford
to pay school fees whose
names were being called out.
She stared down at her desk,
but the headmaster still saw
her.
“Jacqueline!”
Jacqueline stood up cautiously. She felt stupid.
The headmaster turned to
the children, who stared at
the floor, embarrassed.
“If you want a ticket to
this classroom, you have to
pay your school fees.
Understand? Go home and
get some money! Don’t ever
try to set foot in this school
again if you haven’t paid
your school fees! Now go!”
No-one can pay
“I felt so small when she
kicked us out. As though I
wasn’t worth anything. I
cried because I really loved
school,” says Jacqueline.
Jacqueline’s family had
always had problems paying
school fees. But when she
was in fifth grade her father
died, and then it became
impossible.
“My relatives helped me
for a while, but they don’t
have much money either and
they have to pay their own
children’s fees. Mum’s new
husband pays for my brothers and his own children.”
When Jacqueline came
home and said that she had
been thrown out of school,
her mother and grandma
were sad.
“I don’t have a job or any
money, so I don’t know what
to do. Maybe you should get
married or start working as
a maid so that you can survive,” said her mum.
Jacqueline’s whole body
seized up. Had she heard her
mother right?
“It hurt so much when
Mum said I should get
married or get a job. I
almost couldn’t breathe.
I was still a child after
all! I wanted to go to
school and have a
good life!”
It’s Jacqueline’s job
to fetch water.
84
No future
“It was impossible to get to
sleep that night. I just lay
there crying, thinking about
what Mum had said. Starting
work as a maid sounded like
the least bad option. Maybe
I’d soon be able to earn
enough money to start school
again. But deep down I
didn’t believe I’d ever be able
to go to school again. My
future had been destroyed.”
The next morning,
Jacqueline felt so sick that
she couldn’t do anything.
The days passed. After two
weeks, a woman trader
came to the village. She said
that she needed a maid for
her house in town.
“At fi rst I refused. But my
grandma said it would only
be until I had saved up
enough to pay my school
fees. In the end I agreed. I was
afraid that my family would
marry me off if I refused.
I cried as I packed my skirt
and blouse in my bag.”
Dead tired
“When we arrived I saw that
the house was big and
grand. The woman said that
I was to dust, mop and dry
the floors. I had only ever
swept earthen floors before
and I told the woman that I
was scared I wouldn’t manage it. Then she got angry
and said that I should have
thought of that before she
bought my bus ticket. If I
didn’t want to work for her,
I’d have to repay the money
for the ticket.”
Jacqueline got up at five
every morning and made
breakfast for the woman’s
children. Then she took the
two youngest boys to nursery. When she got back she
cleaned the whole house.
“I fi nally fi nished cleaning
at one o’clock and only then
could I eat my breakfast porridge. Then I washed all the
dishes. Later, when the family had eaten dinner, I
washed up again.”
Jacqueline bathed the children before they went to
bed, and then dealt with the
family’s dirty laundry.
When she had fi nished
washing and hanging the
clothes, she ironed the laun-
Jacqueline prepares the dinner with
her brothers and cousins.
Jacqueline likes
sweeping up at
home, but it was
terrible working
for the woman
in the city.
Jacqueline, 14
Lives: In the village of Gamba.
Loves: Going to school.
Hates: When boys take advantage
of girls.
Worst thing that’s happened:
When I had to quit school and
start working.
Best thing that’s happened:
When the GCN saved me and
brought me back to school.
Looks up to: Betty Makoni, of
course!
Wants to be: Like Betty and help
girls who have a hard life.
Dream: To study at university.
85
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
t to work!
dry from the day before.
Jacqueline was exhausted,
but before she went to sleep
on the floor of her little boxroom she had to wipe all the
shelves in the kitchen cupboards.
“I never went to bed
before eleven o’clock, and
often it was one o’clock
before I got to bed.
Although I was dead tired I
couldn’t sleep. My head was
full of sad thoughts. I often
thought about how I made
breakfast for the woman’s
daughter, who was the same
age as me. It seemed so
unfair. After all, I should
have been going to school
too, just like her.”
Abused
One afternoon, after
Jacqueline had been working there for a month, the
boys came home from nursery. They wanted Jacqueline
to carry them on her back.
“But I was in the middle of
mopping the floor, and I
couldn’t carry them at the
same time. Then they started to hit me with a stick.
When I took the stick away
from them, they started to
cry. Then the older girl told
the woman that I had hit the
children. The woman was
furious and started to beat
me with a broom until my
nose began to bleed. Then I
ran away.”
Soon Jacqueline bumped
into some of the leaders of
the Girl Child Network
girls’ club at her school.
“What were the chances
of that happening? They
said that they were out looking for me. Everyone in the
When Jacqueline worked in the house in the city she couldn’t sleep even
though she was exhausted. She longed to come home to her family.
86
club had become worried
when they hadn’t seen me
for a while. Now they had
come to take me home. They
told me that GCN had
already paid my school fees,
and that all I needed to do
was to come back to school.
I was delighted!”
A good life
“Before going home to my
village, we went to the
police station together and
reported the woman for
abuse. She had to pay me
compensation. The police
also asked if the woman had
paid me for my work, but of
course she hadn’t. So they
made her pay my salary too.”
The very next day,
Jacqueline started school
again.
“I had dreamt of coming
back for so long. Now I
think I’m going to have a
good life. When I grow up I
want to fight for girls to be
able to go to school, so that
they can have a good future.
Children should go to
school, not work!” 
My favourite possession
“My favourite possession is my maths book.
The first lesson I went to after the Girl Child
Network had saved me and brought me back
to school was maths. That’s why I love
reading this maths book! ”
7000 saved from
child labour
Every day Jacqueline has to
clean the house and the
yard, fetch water and cook
food. What’s more, she goes
to school and does her
homework.
“Even though my life is
hard, I have an opportunity
that many girls in Zimbabwe
can only dream of. I’ve been
so lucky! Without Betty
Makoni, I’d never have been
going to school now.”
Betty thinks that roughly
every fourth girl in Zimbabwe
has to stop school because
of poverty, just as Jacqueline
did.
“But at least we’ve been
able to rescue 7000 girls
from child labour, and
helped them to start school
again,” says Betty.
Jacqueline is delighted
to be back in the classroom.
5000 girls get help
“The GCN helps me pay
my school fees, and I also
get maize, beans and oil
when the food from
Grandma’s field runs out,”
says Jacqueline.
The Girl Child Network
often visits the homes of
the girls from the girls’
clubs, to find out which of
them need help the most.
“Right now, 5000 poor
girls are getting help from
us to pay for their school
fees and uniforms. But
they also get food. It’s
impossible to learn things
and develop if you’re hungry,” says Betty Makoni.
87
Jacqueline and the
wild animals
Hippo in the
veggie patch
The area where Jacqueline lives is called
Hwange. There are both lions and elephants
here. Once or twice, Jacqueline’s close calls
with the wild animals could have ended badly…
“One day when I was watering the vegetable patch by the river we saw something
coming towards us through the long grass.
At first everyone thought it was a cow.
But as it got closer, we noticed that it didn’t
have any horns and that its hide looked different. We got scared and shouted for my
uncle, who works on one of the game
reserves here in Hwange. He saw that it
was a hippopotamus, and said that we
shouldn’t get close to it. Hippos can
become dangerous if they get scared or
irritated. He fired a shot into the air with his
rifle to scare it away. But instead it charged
towards us and my uncle had to shoot it.
I don’t like wild animals.
They’re dangerous. But I
know that foreign tourists love to come here
to see the animals.
Most of all they want to
see ‘The Big Five’.”
Baboon stole watermelon
“During the summer season I
work in my grandma’s field every
Saturday. We grow pumpkins,
watermelons and maize there. In
the mountains around the
field there are lots of
baboons. They
often come down
and try to eat our
crops. Once, when
my aunt and I were
sitting eating
watermelon, a
baboon came run-
ning towards us. It was screeching and swinging a large branch.
We were terrified! Before we
could get away, the baboon hit my
aunt on the back and whacked me
across the shins. I ran one way
and my aunt ran the other way.
From a distance, I saw how the
baboon sat down quite calmly at
the edge of the field and ate up my
watermelon. Although that was
five years ago, I always carry a
stick with me so I can defend
myself if I get attacked again!”
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN PHOTO : PAUL BLOMGREN
Wants a free school uniform
“The Girl Child Network has
promised that it’s my turn to get
a uniform the next time there’s
some money. That’s going to be
great, because it’s hard not to
have a uniform at school.
Sometimes the others say: “Hey
you, the one that can’t afford a
uniform, come here!” and I get
embarrassed and feel so worthless. It’s a good thing that those
who can afford uniforms buy
their own. But those of us who
can’t afford them should get free
uniforms and shouldn’t have to
pay fees!” says Jacqueline.
What does a uniform cost?
Dress
Top
Shoes
Socks
10,500 Z dollars
5,000 Z dollars
5,000 Z dollars
1,000 Z dollars
Pants
Bag
Total
2,700 Z dollars
1,000 Z dollars
25,200 Z dollars
(100 US dollars)
What do school fees
cost per year?
Primary school: 3,600 Z dollars (15 US dollars)
Secondary school: 24,000 Z dollars
(100 US dollars)
The zeros disappeared
In August 2006, three zeros were removed from the Zimbabwean
dollar notes. Before that, a school dress cost 10.5 million Z dollars!
88
My waterfall!
Jacqueline lives near
Victoria Falls in western
Zimbabwe.
“It’s so incredibly beautiful! I feel free here! ”
shouts Jacqueline as she
looks out over the thundering waters.
During the rainy season
more than 500 million
litres of water gush over
the edge of the falls every
minute! Victoria Falls is
one of the largest waterfalls in the world. It is 1.7
km wide and 108 metres
high. It’s double
the height
and width of
Niagara Falls in
North America.
The only waterfall that
comes close in size is
Iguazu Falls on the border
of Brazil and Argentina.
The Scottish explorer
David Livingstone named
the waterfall Victoria Falls
in 1885, after Queen
Victoria of Great Britain.
But of course, the waterfall
already had another name
before he got there: Mosioa-Tunya. It means the
smoke that thunders.
‘The
Big Five’
Hunters have a special
name for lions, elephants,
rhinos, leopards and African buffalos:
‘The Big Five’. They don’t call these
animals the Big Five because they are
the biggest, but rather because they
are the hardest to hunt. That’s why
giraffes and hippos are not included.
Hunters also believe that the finest
hunting trophies come from the Big
Five, like the ivory of elephant tusks.
Many elephants have been killed by
poachers who wanted to get their
hands on the valuable ivory. The elephant was in grave danger of becoming extinct and in 1989 all trade in ivory
was made illegal all over the world in
order to save the elephant.
89
WHAT DO THE BOYS REALLY THINK?
We don’t want to be
MONSTERS!
“If girls in Zimbabwe are to have a good
life, we boys need to change,” says
Chakanetsa, who washes the dishes every
evening and lets his little sister rest.
B
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
“
oys often think they
can show how strong
they are by treating
girls badly. They become
monsters who rape and beat
girls. But there are lots of us
boys who don’t want to be
monsters! I lead an organisation called Padare here in
Chitungwiza. We have boys’
clubs, just like the Girl Child
Network has girls’ clubs,
and we meet once a week
and talk about children’s
rights. We often talk about
how boys and girls are seen
so differently here in
Zimbabwe. Boys are
thought to be strong and
girls weak. But that’s completely wrong! Women and
girls are much stronger than
us. Girls are brought up to
clean, fetch water, cook,
wash up and do the laundry.
They become like slaves.
During that time, boys are
allowed to play, rest and be
served by the girls. Later,
when the girls become
mums, it’s almost always
them who take care of the
children alone. They make
sure that the children get
enough food, have clean clothes and get to go to school.
The mothers wear themselves out because they love the
children. That’s strength!
But it’s also unjust.”
Challenging the boys
“I think that if girls in
Zimbabwe are to have a
good life, we boys need to
change. So that we
understand that boys and
girls have equal value, and
that a real man dares to treat
women well! At Padare, we
believe that boys and girls
are created equal, and that
we should help each other.
That’s why we challenge all
our members, fathers and
neighbours to help out more
at home. We say, ‘let your
sister, mum or wife rest
today – wash up or cook dinner’! I wash the dishes every
evening so that my little sister Precious, 14, can rest. She
washes up in the afternoons
– we share the household
chores.”
Cooperation with girls
“The boys in Padare are
friends with the girls in Girl
Child Network. We meet up,
boys and girls, once a month
and talk about the situation
for children in Zimbabwe,
and about what we’d like to
change. We often join the
GCN on marches for girls’
rights. So even though we’re
an organisation for boys, we
fight together with the girls.
Betty – a star!
“For me, Betty Makoni is a
star! She’s a warrior who
fights for girls’ rights. She
has inspired me so much and
made me think about how
girls should be treated.”
90
Chakanetsa, 19
Lives: In Chitungwiza, outside
Harare.
Loves: Being with friends.
Hates: When people don’t
treat others as they’d like to be
treated themselves.
Worst thing that’s happened to me: When everyone
forgot my birthday last year!
Best thing that’s happened
to me: Having a family that
cares about me.
Looks up to: Betty Makoni.
She’s a star!
Wants to be: A lawyer and
fight for children’s rights.
Dream: For boys and girls to
have the same rights.
After all, when we fight for
girls’ rights, we’re really fighting for human rights.
Zimbabwe – and the whole
world – will be a better place
the day that boys and girls
respect each other!” 
The Girl Child Network
works hard trying to
change the way boys treat
girls. They have special
courses about girls’ rights
for boys and men. The
GCN also works together
with Padare, an organisation for boys, so that young
boys and girls can meet
and learn to understand
each other better. Betty
and Girl Child Network
hope that this will help
bring more equality to
Zimbabwe in the future.
Christian saved by
Girl Child Network …
… even though he’s a boy!
W
“
hen I was 6, my
dad died of AIDS,
and mum died
when I was 11. My twin
brother Christopher and I
tried to get by as best we
could. But we were young
and I started to become very
ill. My health got worse and
worse. Eventually I went to
the hospital and I found out
there that I also had HIV.
It felt so terribly unfair.
We knew that we needed
help if I was to have any
chance of surviving. But
who could we ask?”
“I knew about Betty and
the Girl Child Network
since we live here in
Chitungwiza. Although I
knew that they really only
helped girls, I decided to go
and see them. If there was
one person I believed could
help me it was Betty.”
Giving love
“And I was right. The Girl
Child Network took care of
me straight away, even
though I’m a boy! That
night, I went home with
blankets and food for my
brother and me. Since then,
GCN has helped me with
everything. They pay for my
school fees, uniforms, pens,
books, soap and food. Now
they’ve even promised to
pay for my HIV medicine.
But the most important
thing is that they give us
safety and love. Someone
from GCN comes to our
home twice a week and
checks that we’re okay. Betty
and the other women have
become like mothers for me.
They comfort me when I’m
worried and miss my own
mum. They have saved my
life!”
Equal rights
“As a boy, I’m extra grateful
that I get help from the Girl
Child Network, since it’s the
girls’ own organisation. And
girls really need the GCN,
because life is tougher for
them than for us boys. It’s
also much harder for them
to be able to go to school. I
think that’s completely
wrong! How can you stop a
child from going to school? I
think boys and girls have the
same value and should be
treated equally. That’s why
the GCN is so important.
They fight for girls in
Zimbabwe to have a good
life and the same opportunities as us boys.” 
Christian, 16
Lives: In Chitungwiza, outside
Harare.
Loves: Fighting for children with
HIV.
Hates: Adults who abuse children.
Worst thing that’s happened
to me: When I’m treated badly
because I’m ill.
Best thing that’s happened
to me: When Betty started to
help me.
Looks up to: Betty Makoni!
We are worth the same! Wants to be: A doctor.
“I’m often ill, but my brother
Dream: For all the HIV-positive
is healthy. That makes me feel
children in the world to have
safe. When I’m not feeling well
a good life.
he helps me with everything.
He cooks food and keeps me
company. Although it’s difficult to do I have learned
to live with the illness, and I talk about it openly.
I do that so that all of us who have HIV/AIDS become
more accepted. We are worth the same and have the
same rights as everyone else!”
 TEXT: ANDRE AS LÖNN phOTO : pAUL BLOMGREN
“It’s a miracle that I’m still alive. If Betty hadn’t
helped me I’m sure I would have been dead
today,” says Christian, 16.
91
L E J U RY P O U R L E P R I X D E S E N FA N T S D U M O N D E 2 0 0 7 E L J U R A D O D E L P R E M I O D E L O S N I Ñ O S D E L M U N D O 2 0 0 7 O J Ú R I D O P R Ê M I O C R I A N Ç A S D O M U N D O 2 0 0 7
the jury for the world’s children’s prize 2007
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FR
Idalmin
Santana
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FR
Gabatshwane
Gumede
AL
OB D
GL I E N
FR
Railander Pablo
Freitas de Souza
USA
SOUTH AFRICA
BRAZIL
The children of the jury that will
decide who will be awarded
the World’s Children’s Prize are
experts on the Rights of the
Child as a result of their own
experiences. They have been
child soldiers, slaves, streetchildren, refugees and fighters
for children´s rights.
AL
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Thai Thi
Nga
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FR
TO BE
NAMED!
VIETNAM
AL
OB D
GL I E N
FR S I E R R A
AL
OB N D
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G IE
FR
AL
OB N D
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G IE
FR
Thomas
Opiyo
UGANDA
Ofek
Rafaeli
ISRAEL
Isabel
Mathe
LEONE
AL
OB N D
L
E
G I
FR
AL
OB N D Hassana
L
G IE
Hameida Hafed
FR
AL
OB N D
L
G IE
FR
TO BE
NAMED!
Mary
Smart
WESTERN SAHARA
MOZAMBIQUE
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G IE
FR
Omar
Bandak
AL
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G IE
FR
Sukumaya
Magar
PALESTINE
NEPAL
AL
OB N D Laury Cristina
L
E
G I
Hernandez Petano
FR
COLOMBIA
AL
OB N D
L
G IE
FR
Maïmouna
Diouf
SENEGAL
They represent all the children
of the world who have similar
experiences.
the world’s children’s prize for the rights of the child 2007