People in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe – once the breadbasket of the region – face numerous daunting challenges: inflation that soars above 1,000 percent, spiraling rates of HIV infection, violent strikes and a scarcity of food. Raping girls, purported to cure HIV, is a widespread practice and one of the many traumas that make life in Zimbabwe especially hard for women.

Betty Makoni’s Girl Child Network has stepped in to provide much-needed support, education and protection to 20,000 girls in Zimbabwe. The Network operates 350 clubs in two-thirds of the country that give girls a space to build communication skills, bond with mentors and learn about body image, sexual harassment, rape, reproductive health and the risks and dangers of prostitution. The clubs also work to educate the public about the importance of treating girls equally. The clubs address short-term needs as well, with many raising money to buy sanitary pads for members – an unaffordable necessity that keeps many girls from attending school regularly.

Reginah Bobo, 15, says the Network has taught her to assert herself. “I am confident in what I do and say .... There was a [house] where girls were abused. The first time we reported it, the police didn’t react. So we marched as a club to the police station and said we would not go away unless the officers accompanied us [there]. The police closed the house and put the boys in jail for five years. We said if they were allowed out on bail, we would come back.”

The group’s education program has paid school tuition for 15,000 girls to date and every year 200 girls attend university and major in fields such as science. The organization also runs Girls’ Empowerment Villages that include a shelter for girls from abusive families. Since Girl Child Network started doing outreach in 2004, no child rape cases have been reported in two of the three communities that Empowerment Villages are located in.

The Global Fund for Women was the Network’s first institutional donor in 1999. Since then, Global Fund has given $85,000 in grants to the organization, allowing them to expand programs that address both the causes of major problems in Zimbabwean society as well as the short-term needs that are unique to the region.