TUNE IN 8PM TONIGHT

Inserted by Radio Personality of the Year Eve Parkes

Join me on the “lets be frank show” as i am joined by Zimbabwe Girl Child Network Worldwide chief executive officer, Betty Makoni,…….Topic tonight can more be done to save young girls been married to old man in the Johane Marange Church ?girls as young as 12 been married to a 57 year old man ? all in the name of God…is it? 8pm Uk time www.zimonlineradio.com

Date :1  February 2010

Click here for more details of time:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/projectempowerment/2012/02/01/project-empowerment–betty-makoni-cnn-hero

Voting is open until Friday, January 27, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be announced on Monday, January 30. Vote Betty Makoni here and by so doing you are voting the girls she supports.

http://www.afrikangoddess.com/meetthetop3nominees.htm

Three months ago,  Afrikan Goddess Award Founder member Amma Twum-Baah began a  journey to find the goddess of the year 2012.

Afrikan Goddess Media is the home of Afrikan Goddess Magazine, Afrikan Goddess Awards and Afrikan Goddess Publishing. All three brands under Afrikan Goddess Media exist to celebrate the lifestyle, achievements, issues and events that shape the lives of African women across the globe.

From over 20 women  they selected 14.  They  trimmed 14 down to 10, and from 10  they found 5. Today,  they have 2 finalists and and Betty Makoni of Girl Child Network Worldwide (www.girlchildnetworkworldwide.org) says she feels honored to be amongst women who have achieved so much.

View Betty Makoni`s video here to learn more about her work

http://youtu.be/hR05Jl5K6IE

Inserted by

Muzvare Betty Makoni Team

If I could talk to you Highest Mighty Creator

I would kneel and plead as I always do

I would cry my heart out

I would surrender myself for one thing

Not to take a daughter from a mother

Today my tears flow on

Each time her mother chats

She chants Amelia my daughter

When Amelia`s mother calls her name

She is not answering her mother at all

I would plead to let her console her mother

To say yes mama I see you

Even in the middle of night

And that’s every night too

She comes  to say my daughter leading in award nomination

She cast her vote and she keeps her hopes alive

She stands more than anyone whose daughter still alive

She smiles with her pictures

She feels her but Amelia won’t say am here mama

My one plea highest creator

Let the daughters live on

You give with right hand and left one takes away

So, so young Amelia lives on

All awards coming her name will be called

She will not answer or stand up

Her mother will stand and say

Here I am she came from me but she is no more

All birthdays coming she will not sing back

Her mother is doing all

My plea with you Highest Honored Mighty Creator

Let the girls live on

Highest order I can’t stop

I can only plead with thee Creator

Let mother see her daughter to the end

My knees are down and my head on ground

Crying tears of pain

When her mother says lets go

She won’t go

When she calls she won’t answer

My plea Highest Almighty

May all mothers have daughters till end of time

Amelia`s mother cries to you by the night

I cry with her too

You could have let her daughter live on

The late Amelia has been nominated Best female hip hop artist. Pse help me her to get NUMBER 1. by.Results 7 Dec 2011@ 7 Arts Avondale Hre. Send an email to:zimhiphopunleashed@yahoo.com

I want to urge the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe to urgently put on agenda two issues in budget to be presented by Minister Tendai  Biti on Thursday 24 November 2011

As per appeal made via my social networking site there is a desperate outcry from mothers who earn less than 200 dollars per month  for government to reduce costs on baby food and ensure they work hand in hand with producers of such products to make them affordable. I advise UNICEF in Zimbabwe  and other donor agencies to make this issue  an urgent matter  and wherever possible  create platforms at grassroots level where affected groups could be heard and assisted in such urgent matters pertaining to children , their health and nutrition. Babies depend on recommended foods during their infancy.

Statement below sums up the urgent request from grassroots women

Tryphine Musokota Hi, Betty can someone campaign for baby food to be reduced how can formula cost us $8.00 and Cerelac cost us $5.00 this is too much consider we are getting $200.00 can we have a voice to all breast feeding mums here in Zim tarwadziwa

Sanitary pads

The situation has not improved as many girls are so desperate to an extent  they are now imitating sticks as tampoons with many using used newspapers , leaves and hair to manage menstruation.  We want to hear the Minister of Finance allocating as little as  50 000 dollars for girls who have started making renewable sanitary pads in rural areas so that such sustainable projects can be replicated.

Budget Presentation Postponed to Thursday 24th November

The Minister of Finance has announced the second postponement of the presentation of his Budget Statement for 2012, from this afternoon until Thursday afternoon, commencing at 2.45 pm.  The reason given was that following a meeting of the GPA principals yesterday rescheduling of the principals’ commitments made a further postponement of the Budget necessary.

This petition is submitted by

Muzvare  Betty Makoni

Chief Executive Officer

Girl Child Network Worldwide

CNN Hero for Protecting the Powerles-2009

Honorary Decade Child Rights Hero-2010

Girl Child Rights Activist

Founder of Girl Child Network Zimbabwe

Visit:www.muzvarebettymakoni.org

Please click like in support of this urgent petition .Also share it on your wall

Today I received good news and am so excited. Back then in 2003 I never knew  one day I would blog or tweet or Facebook to share a story of a now empowered woman who was  once  just an ordinary house wife. She  later took a menial job as a receptionist cum cleaner in Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe but  through sheer hard work, determination and being inspired  bounces back  with a completely different story –she is  graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Counseling degree and there will be  a  party to celebrate her achievements..

There are many stories of my work I have  done out of passion and NOT DONOR MONEY  that I will blog about  because I never got a chance to write  during my busy and heavy schedule at frontline leadership of the organisation in Zimbabwe. It looks everyone who got inspired by my story worked towards their own transformation. To think just a story could transform others in this way has shocked me.

Maybe being a house wife one`s potential is often underestimated and it needs courage to identify and support such women because the more we create conditions that make it hard for them to develop a career the more we lose sight of potential around us .Most organisations hire highly skilled and educated women but one issue  that  bothers me is who can hire  women and girls  with potential and passion and then allow them to get on the  job training and wait for them to be in school  and college and be educated. It is tough but when I did it many times I feel the contribution was not to GCN Zimbabwe only but to the whole community and country .This is often overlooked in strictly professional recruitment  circles that when we do development work benefits are not  confined to our organisations only but the whole country as well.

Many of you may find such stories far removed from your reality but to poor and disadvantaged women and girls who solely thrive on inspiration and kindness from others the invisible life donation of passion changes their lives forever. They learn to dream beyond a village or a kitchen and bedroom. They learn to think about success and not failure because you are close by in their lives and they can interact. At least I saw this power to inspire each time I talked to women and girls. The more stories I get from women testifying how my story changed them the more I feel that such inspirational stories must be documented and shared so that many more women and girls can be inspired.

When it comes to inspiring others I realise that there is so much one can do without money. Today, I see  women who never seemed to exist moving up the leadership ladder to be successful and doing more and more work to inspire others. There is so much of this work of PASSION and not PAYROLL that am reminded of when I receive some messages from women and girls who felt they benefitted from my inspiration and so they are  working to pass on the same kindness. Work done out of passion is work that has never been measured or evaluated and so even though I know I talked to someone about their potential and what they can do about it  I am not so sure how that transformed  them completely. Many women say they are inspired but I am not so sure what changes take place when this happens. One thing I know is that they come to say they are new and better off than before. So there is something about an empowering and inspirational story that am exploring more about that I will share when my Biography  and poetry book come out.

To many who are accustomed to graduating from University or College, this might not be news worth writing  or reading about. But to me who spent some quality time with a woman called Robina, in a remote place of Matebeleland North in Zimbabwe where there is no and will never be a University around where she lives, I find her to be on my breaking news and I want the world to know that  in Africa there are many  women  and girls who try to do something  against all odds. Robina has  four children, there is no University in Hwange and so she travelled 700 kilometres weekly to  and from nearest University  to do studies and submit assignments. Money  and other educational resources were scarce . African women and girls  are resilient as always they dig a rocky place till water flows out.

To think today I will tweet the world to say look here is an African woman  and thousands others who  graduate from Universities that are 700 kilometres away and weekly  they are on a bus to and from to nearest city to attain education. In contrast there are some in better resourced and richer places  who do not even bother to attend class at a University that is 700 meters away.

I used to work with  Robina at  Girl Child Network Zimbabwe Hwange branch and she was one of our support staff-maybe just a cleaner or receptionist and her job started and ended at one place.  Today, she broke the barrier that kept her at reception to being at top management of the organisation. I can’t believe she is the one who dropped a message in my inbox today  to say she is no longer support staff but she is now supported staff like all Directors and Program officers at top management. She dropped me a message that has made me think what small actions can do to change other women`s lives and I want to encourage this among women as I have done it many times and it has worked.

A note below from Robina maybe short but to me it came a long way . It has been a long journey for her having missed opportunity. I always believe in women like her to have potential and so many of them I keep them so close to my heart.

Dear Betty

I will send you my picture. you empowered me to this end. May the Lord God Bless You Betty. My Degree comes from when you said “please YOU need to achieve more and be educated. Give it a try one day you will be big your selves” you said this when we were at Kadoma range hotel in 2003 when we were doing strategic planning for GCN ZIM

Robina

I told Robina that she had the potential  to be someone bigger and  initially she never believed me at at all. I continued talking about my personal struggles to be where I am, she really took it to heart and went on to enrol for a degree and later  sent me a message to say she had started on a degree in counseling. I was so happy that I responded back and said keep going. Today she is no longer a cleaner but Coordinator of Girls Empowerment Village in Hwange.  Imagine if she had not gone to further her studies. She could have remained with a broom cleaning the offices instead of being high on leadership ladder. When I see women who are deprived I always see potential and I have many testimonies of women like Robina who never had chances in life but through just telling them to stand up they actually did and they keep flying.

There is a real big struggle starting with  one who tries to help like in  this  case, me. I encouraged Robina to study but she had  no resources to support herself .Sometimes I felt guilty that my mouth would say too  about her achieving but at personal level I  failed  to give something  materially which could  help her  get to that level. Then she had her personal struggles trying to help herself when she knew she could not do it due to no and limited resources.

As we play games on Facebook and use such privileges  as the internet to search for luxury goodies, for a woman or girl  who is poor such resources could  be a life saver as she will reach out for help. I am sharing about situations where some people have everything to an extent they forget there are others  with  virtually nothing. And then situations where some women and girls have  nothing to an extent of thinking if ever there anything could come out of all their efforts at all. News of a woman graduating in a village  can bring everything to a halt in a village as that is news to them but to us it is but a passing story because we got the privilege to graduate many times and then forgot we have to do something to help others who have no such privileges.

I am sharing this story so that women and girls who missed opportunities to be educated know that they can be anywhere they want to be if they keep focus and work towards  a goal that is SMART. There are many messages that I receive from some former  staff members I worked with  in Zimbabwe and clearly human potential must not be underestimated or undermined. Sometimes I did not shout to the world that I am encouraging every woman  to climb up the leadership ladder but more than before you will hear me shout out joy and happiness of  some achievements being reported by some women. I will share such stories so as  to inspire other women and girls who might be giving up on their dreams and aspirations to know everything is possible and it takes courage to achieve what you want. As stories of hope come in my inbox it is better to  shout to the world that invisible women and girls are graduating and climbing up  the ladder of empowerment  rather than always shouting about their poverty and misery.  Robina and I  might have struggled to achieve what we have today  but we will not struggle to enjoy our achievements as women leaders.

Is it not great that a woman rises from being a cleaner or driver or receptionist to being a Coordinator or Program Director as well as  big boss in an organisation? As women are we not proud that at least some women who are far below ladder of leadership  rise up and lead just  like us. I am looking at my list of women who missed chances as girls who   worked with me and then achieved a skill that has taken them to next level. I am hoping they inspirationally infect every other woman and girl they meet like what Robina is doing-working for Mwemba Girls Empowerment Village for Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe.

Friends in many things that you are doing don’t forget to drop Robina a small surprise  note to say congratulations. robinachimowa@ymail.com and connect with her direct for future partnerships.

Also take some time to go and visit our project here and choose to support Robina`s work  in Hwange

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/girl-empowerment-model-for-100000-girls-in-africa/

By Muzvare Betty Makoni team

To VOTE  Vote Now https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGh1QmpLVzlBYWpFZXdEZG9fTXIxa1E6MQ

African Goddess Online has announced that Betty Makoni is nominated amongst top ten African women for the Prestigious African Goddess  award  of the year . http://www.goddess-of-the-year.com/p/goddess-2012-awards.html for empowering, inspiring and transforming the lives of thousands of sexually abused  of girls in Africa and world over. This latest nomination comes at a time when Betty Makoni has successfully replicated the Girl Child Empowerment Model in four other African countries with thousands of girls and women in Zimbabwe and world over forming similar Girl Child Networks. The  work started in a classroom in a high density suburb  in Chitungwiza with ten of her Advanced  level students has won  26  prestigious global awards including CNN Hero, World Children`s Prize alongside President Nelson Mandela , United Nations Red Ribbon award among others . She is also featured in many books and she is the main subject  in the award winning documentary Tapestries of Hope.

According to African Goddess Online, their award goes to a woman of African descent who possesses an authentic, self-sufficient, female power. She is a woman of African descent who sets her own trends and sets her own pace. She dances to the tune of her own music. She is intelligent, innovative, and gets results, and she has a heart for her community. At Afrikan Goddess Online, we feature African women contributing something positive to their communities. These women are fighting for justice and taking a stance. These women are passionate about what they do and care immensely about making a difference in their communities – no matter how small.

Afrikan Goddess has featured women from across the African continent on our front cover since January 2009. These women are usually women who have availed themselves to a higher calling of selfless service to their communities, and who have accomplished personal achievements worthy of recognition. To date, they have interviewed and profiled over 20 goddesses.According to African Goddess Online the time has come to finally recognize special women. One of the women   will become our first-ever Goddess of the Year, and will have her accomplishments tooted to a broad global audience, gaining the special recognition and funding that she and her community deserve (and need).

Read more about Betty Makoni http://www.afrikangoddess.com/bettymakoni.htm#en

VOTE FOR BETTY MAKONI Now for this prestigious award so that her dream for a first ever Girls Empowerment and Education Fund becomes a reality .Click here and follow instructions. It takes only one minute

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGh1QmpLVzlBYWpFZXdEZG9fTXIxa1E6MQ

Girl Child Network Zimbabwe also wishes to inform members of the public that Vio Mak and her online newspapers have no connection with our charity here in Zimbabwe and any news generated from  her websites via her many syndicates do not represent our charity or any of our partners whose contractual agreements we have in our possession and which will remain confidential as long as our current contracts run. We also wish to inform members of the public that at no point have we shared any reports or donor reports with any newspaper or media house as we have no authority to share them as per donor agreements. No donor has authority to share any reports with Vio Mak and her online newspapers as per our contractual agreements as such information can be abused and changed to suit whatever agenda someone has .The rules governing sharing of organisational reports remain the obligation of Girl Child Network Zimbabwe only. In the same vein, Girl Child Network Zimbabwe has no right to share Viomak Charity reports with any members of the public as that way we abuse what her charity stands for should we alter or part of her reports or share with public without her written and signed consent.

Any so called donor reports from Oxfam Novib  Vio Mak is  allegedly circulating have nothing to do with reports our charity have generated and any reports members of the public get on her website or on any social media networks have nothing to do with our charity and they do not represent anything we stand for.

As long as reports are generated by her syndicates we ask members of the public to discard of them and email us direct and request for reports should you need any as we have reports since formation in 1998 and all those were submitted to donors and they are certified copies and signed . Any reports that do not bear our signatures and unique stamps are not generated by us and our donors.

Girl Child Network Zimbabwe remains a professional organisation headed by Kumbirayi Kahiya Chikowero and at the moment she is the legal representative of the organisation with authority to share any reports generated by the organisation via our blogs and social networks. Not a single day have we asked Vio Mak and her syndicate to speak on our behalf as we have a professional Public relations and media department responsible for sharing reports.

Members of the public  should know that Girl Child Network Zimbabwe has contractual agreements with donors and we have procedures to share and distribute reports but not via Vio Mak`s websites or any websites. We have a functional website on www.gcnzimbabwe.org and all our reports are uploaded there for any potential funders and donors. Any reports coming from third parties may have been altered or changed to suit whatever hidden agendas they may have and therefore they are null and void.

There are over 15 000 charities here in Zimbabwe and why has Vio Mak singled out  only Girl Child Network Zimbabwe as only charity she must continuously attack and harass. It should be clear to the public that everything we suffer to try and help can meet a lot of people like her who feel we must be thwarted and silenced. We also want to inform members of the organisation that we work with individuals who  find easy to just criticise from outside without understanding the many dynamics we have to deal with in order to help girls.

Like any organisation our work has successes and failures, strengths and weakness and  constructive critics  should know our doors remain open for you to come and help us in any way possible. As per our routine calls, anyone who feels can help us be better please feel welcome.

Please follow us on facebook  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Girl-Child-Network-Zimbabwe/336015311229

Our headquarters and contact details for any reports and updates

Kumbirai L. Kahiya Chikowero

Director
Girl Child Network Zimbabwe
Communications and Public Relations Officer
Physical address: 16352
Bazooka Crescent
Zengeza 4
Chitungwiza
Mobile : +263 772 691 613
Web site www.gcnzimbabwe.org
GCN Empowering the girl child empowering the nation.