Makoni among CNN Heroes of the Year

By Esther Gomo

Girl Child Network (GCN) founder Betty Makoni has been nominated as one of the candidates for the CNN Heroes of the Year award run by global news media giant Cable News Network.

For nearly a decade 37 year old Makoni has worked tirelessly in Zimbabwe to protect young girls from sexual abuse. She has helped rescue over 35 000 girls from abuse and provided a public forum for them to speak out.

Makoni says her own tragic experiences have driven her to do what she does. “I was raped when I was 6 years old,” she recalled. Her attacker was a local shopkeeper. Makoni said her mother would not allow her to report the abuse.

“She said, ‘Shh, we don’t say that in public,’ ” Makoni remembered. “I had no shoulder to cry on.”

Three years later, she witnessed her father murder her mother. In that moment, Makoni said she realized the potentially deadly consequence of a woman’s silence.

“I told myself that no girl or woman will suffer the same again,” she said.

To vote for Betty Makoni visit:

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive09/betty.makoni.html