Send 50 Girls to School in Rural Zimbabwe

Starting October 12 for a limited time, GlobalGiving will be matching donations for this project! Donate and maximize your impact!

GCN’s work continues to make long strides toward making positive changes in social justice as an increasing number of girls are becoming more aware of their rights. By providing at-risk girl-children with the necessary tools to regain their self-confidence, girls now have the strength to report abuse. Furthermore, girls are better able to get justice as 52% of reported perpetrators were apprehended last year.

 Due to GCN’s awareness campaigns, community members have mobilized themselves to form Child Monitoring Committees that work to ensure that abuse cases are reported with an increase of cases reported by the girls themselves.

Most importantly, the girls (80 are currently being provided with school fees) have been able to stay in school giving them the chance to prove that they can make it to the top despite previous traumatic experiences. In fact, 2 girls from the empowerment village will be attending university in the United States!

 By donating to GCN, you are ensuring that girls have the opportunity to heal and achieve their full potential. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Girl Child Network reports many successes since their last update. Despite Zimbabwe’s many political and economic challenges, GCN courageously continues their work.

With help from supporters like you, not only is GCN able to help educate girls, but GCN has rescued 26 girls from physical and sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and child labor abuse. They carried out 39 home visits to follow up with abusive cases. Girls were also provided with psycho-social support.

The dedicated staff members work closely with social welfare, police and courts on the sexual abuse cases and since our last update, have reported a total of 22 sexual abuse cases to authorities. Among the cases reported, 2 cases resulted in 10-15 years of jail time 4 cases resulted in over 15 years of jail time.

They continue outreach to communities in warning and cautioning parents and guardians about child abuse, encouraging parents to honor the rights of the girls, and encouraging parents to ensure security and protection of children.

GCN is also in the process of conducting a study of sexual child abuse cases that have gone through the Hwange Magistrate Courts between 2008 to 2009- the goal is to critically analyze the judgments given to the perpetrators of sexual child abuse.