Makoni Among Women Who 'Light up the Dark'
By Sandra Mandizvidza
THE founder and director of Girl Child Network Betty Makoni is featured in the first chapters of a new book, Women who light the dark by Paola Gianturco, to be launched in New York on 8 September this year.
Makoni will travel to the US this week for the launch and will go on a national tour with Gianturco and other members of the Global Fund.
Lectures and book signings will be held in various parts of the country.
Women who light the dark features 23 organisations from 15 countries, including Zimbabwe, 18 of which are grantees of the Global Fund.
These organisations work on issues that affect women and their families in their everyday lives, their perseverance, abilities and resourcefulness in order to bring light to other "women in darkness".
Gianturco, a Global Fund donor, said her book was a legacy, which would provide a revenue stream to organisations doing important works.
"I observed that women around the world were working on additional, complicated problems. It wasn’t just income poverty that made life difficult, but diseases, discrimination, domestic violence, sex trafficking, illiteracy, malnutrition and lack of education." she said.
She said she was glad to know that women were now fighting to find ways to diminish the issues and wanted to make their work more visible.
Makoni said she felt really honoured to be included in the book and was happy that the work she was doing in helping the girl child was being recognized internationally.
"I am so happy to be chosen to appear in the first chapter of a book which is even now a bestseller before its launch, it is surely a great achievement," said Makoni.
In April this year Makoni won the Global Friend’s award at the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child.
Five million two hundred thousand children from all over the world voted for her.
GCN has been supporting girls exposed to abuse and protects others from assault, forced marriages, trafficking and sexual abuse.
The Global Fund for women has been the main sponsor for GCN since its inception in 1999.