Betty makoni autobiography in five short sentences

Betty makoni autobiography in five short sentences: Five years on from completing her

Betty Makoni knows all about the traumas that can befall a girl child in her country, Zimbabwe. She lived through horrors herself and is making sure that other girls' childhoods are nothing like her own. Makoni escaped abuse by getting a working scholarship to an all-girls boarding school and going on to earn two degrees.

As a teacher in co-ed schools, she witnessed the prejudice and violence that beset her female students. Male students and teachers harassed the girls; strong forces in the culture are stacked against girls. Child labor, female circumcision, forced marriages, beatings, sexual slavery and rape are all too acceptable. There is even a widespread belief that sex with a virgin cures HIV.

Teacher Makoni spoke out for community and faculty support for the girls, to no avail. Calling her effort the Girl Child Network, Makoni quit her teaching job and walked across the nation, talking to everyone she met about protecting and supporting girl children. Despite the old cultural forces, people all over the country recognized that Makoni was right and offered to help expand the GCN.

There have been others who learned what she was doing and reacted quite differently; Makoni has been arrested, harassed and intimidated by police. One possible reason for police moves against her: Makoni has denounced high-ranking public officials for raping girls.