Zimbabwe – Girl Child Network

GCN is a community based, activist, developmental
organisation that seeks to
promote the rights and
empowerment of the girl child
in the home, school and community.

GCN is registered under the Private Voluntary
Organization Act (9/2004) and
therefore enjoys legal status
as an official
non-governmental organisation in Zimbabwe.

The
National Executive Council

Vision

GCN envisions a society where girls are empowered and enjoy their rights with
support from whole communities so as to walk in the fullness of their
potential in line with the Millennium Development Goals.

Mission

GCN’s mission is to resocialise girls (0-18 years old) so that they
articulate their individual and collective rights and strategically position
themselves to take charge of their own empowerment.

GCN mobilizes whole communities to
eradicate patriarchal structures that dominate the home, school, and
community so as to support the development of an enabling environment and to
promote and protect the rights of the girl child

GCN ensures girls at risk and most
vulnerable to abuse are rescued and empowered to speak out and, through
provision of safe shelter and strong referral to legal and medical aid, stand
up to defend their rights

GCN supports and promotes girls to be in
school and advocates for a violence free school environment so that girls get
maximum benefits from education

Organisational Goal

GCN’s organizational goal is to protect and promote the rights of the girl
child and to support the economic, political, social and cultural empowerment
of the girl child in order for her to assert those rights in the home, school
and community

GCN,
Journalistic Awards recepients

Historistal Background

The idea to come up with an organisation that champions the rights of the
girl child in Zimbabwe was perceived in 1998 by Betty Makoni, the current
Director and founder of GCN and her ten upper six students. She was deeply
influenced by her experiences of abuse as a child and the many incidents of
gender-based violence in the community where she grew up.

As an organization, GCN was born out of the
helplessness and hopelessness of the girl child in Zimbabwe with the view to
assisting girls in their quest for emancipation. GCN was formerly established
and launched in 1999 at Zengeza 1 High as a response to the harsh realities
of life of the girl child observed in the home, school and community by the
director and founder, Betty Makoni and her female students.

There is evidently deprivation and insecurity that follow girl children from
birth. Of particular concern is the difficult path faced by the girl child in
pursuing her educational goals. Girls are often forced to drop out of school
for various reasons ranging from socio-cultural beliefs and practices to
economic. These include : early marriages, sexual abuse, insufficient
resources for education (coupled with preference given to the education of
male children), and being forced to take charge of child-headed households or
provide home based care to sick relatives inter-alia.

After listening to the often-horrifying
stories of girls, the founder members felt that something had to be done and
in November 1998, they formed an informal discussion group, which became a
safe space for girls to meet and talk freely about their problems and devise
possible solutions.

The club at Zengeza 1 High became the first girls’ empowerment club in
Zimbabwe. As the word spread about the club, neighboring schools subsequently
adopted the idea and began forming their own clubs for girls, all with the
objective of helping provide a safe forum where girls could meet, discuss
challenges, offer each other support and devise solutions to their problems.

On March 1999 the organization was formally
established with a specific mandate to be a voice for the voiceless,
school-aged girls between the ages of 0 – 16 years. It set out not only to
advocate on their behalf, but also to empower the girls to speak out for themselves
when their rights were being threatened.

The beginning of its formal existence in 1999 marked the beginning of great
things to come. The forgotten girl child found a channel to highlight her
plight, interests, to voice out sensitive issues like rape, HIV and AIDS,
forced marriages and premarital sex; and communicate her aspirations and
hopes in an effective manner.

By end of 1999, there were at least 10 active clubs in Chitungwiza. In 2000
GCN began building Girls Empowerment Villages, which served as ‘safe houses’
where survivors of rape and sexual abuse could seek refuge and rehabilitation
and were empowered to break silence countrywide on rape. The founder members,
together with and five hundred girls and a few gender sensitive men, women and
boys undertook a seventeen day 150 kilometer march against child sexual abuse
from Chitungwiza to Mutare. From then the organisation established itself as
a champion in girls` issues.

Today, GCN is firmly established in Zimbabwe
and has indeed become a household name. By July 2006, over 30 000 girls
belong to some 500 GCN clubs in Zimbabwe, spread over 35 of Zimbabwe’s 58
districts. There are now 3 Girls Empowerment Villages, located in Rusape,
Hwange and Chihota.

The club remains the epicenter of the organization, making it the only truly
grassroots movement for girls in Zimbabwe. GCN, through a strategy of
empowerment, is helping its members walk in the fullness of their potential
as future women leaders. Daily, girls in Zimbabwe are being empowered. This
new breed of women has brought a new dimension in the fight for gender
equality and equity while at the same time dealing with some challenges that
come with the HIV and AIDS pandemic and gender based violence.

Organisational Objectives

• Support individual transformation
of girls through capacity building training in gender, HIV and AIDS, human
rights, leadership and confidence building

• Ensure laws and policies that promote the reproductive, economic, social
and political rights for girls are in place and fully implemented so as to
minimize gender based violence

• Advocate and Lobby for total elimination of harmful cultural practices that
impede the full development of the girl child

• Support girl child survivors of gender based violence and girls at risk
through emergency rescue operations, provision of emergency safe shelter and
referral to legal and medical aid and counseling services in partnership with
other stakeholders so that the girl child realises her full potential

• Support and promote girls’ access to education through the provision of
school fees, sanitary ware, panties, exercise books and other basic needs to
the orphaned and vulnerable girls

• Register household and social transformation in attitudes, beliefs and
religious practices as far as they affect the girl child.

• Register media attitude change and gender sensitive reporting on the girl
child

Mandate

GCN’s mandate comes from the girls of Zimbabwe themselves, who in joining
girls’ empowerment clubs have signaled their desire for GCN to lead the
holistic empowerment of the girl child and to act as a voice for vulnerable
girl children through leadership training, confidence building, advocacy for
increased access to justice, for child friendly laws and policies, community
education on child abuse and the urgent need for eradication of harmful
cultural practices that hinder the full physical, spiritual and emotional
growth of the girl child

Values and Culture

GCN is committed to the following values:

• 
  Innovation
  

• 
  Integrity
  

• 
  Excellence
  

• 
  Passion
  

• 
  Transparency
  

• 
  Professionalism
  

• 
  Empathy
  

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