I have had personal contact and interaction with many women and girls who want to know how I transformed from a victim of rape at age six into a global leader for girls . Many women and girls who have listened to me share my journey from being a victim of rape at age six to being a survivor and then an internationally acclaimed girl child rights advocate have been greatly inspired by my story . My story is slightly different from theirs in that I have transformed negative experiences into positive energy when opportunities to do so were limited and many time scuttles. I have facilitated transformation of myself through mobilizing ,organizing and leading in girls empowerment at grassroots level and I have done for ten years. As I feel I have been successful I have decided to help others do the same so that they too become leaders walking in the fullness of their potential.
I now have created a website fully dedicated to this and can be found on www.muzvarebettymakoniei.co.uk and that way I am now able to track some of the women and girls I assist and see how information and knowledge I share with them is transforming them .
As I embark on a journey to inspire many more women and girls to be confident, I will share how every step I take transforms me first and then how such transformation is transmitted into others . I will share how to deal with every thorn and spanner that can possibly hinder and deter full physical, spiritual and economic empowerment and growth of women and girls.
My approach in this training is unique, simple , sincere ,honest and truthful .I will share my real experience when I supported my own empowerment as I built Girl Child Network from scratch in a high density suburb in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. I had the confidence to form the first girls club in a classroom as a teacher and then later I managed to transform this small organization from a poor classroom into the global village. Confidence ,innovation ,leadership principles ,creativity and passion played a major part in this and I will share more on this .
The training I have designed is interactive, engaging and grounded to everyday experience of activists working in difficult and often economically, socially and politically challenging situations .Having confidence in such situations is very important because as an emerging leader one must be equipped with skill and knowledge on what behavior to use in what situation. Individual girls ,their families and communities embrace transformation slowly and with reservations because of socially constructed roles expected of men and women in society . Girls are domesticated from the day they are born ,often named Dambudzo translated Trouble has come and they are not permanent members of the family like boys as they are on transit to get married . So gender analysis will be a topical issue during the training because we must unpack the scripts stamped on women and girls by society and restore a culture of gender equality and equity.
Many women and girls want to know, How to start and run Girls Empowerment Clubs. I will share what the Girl Child Network Empowerment Model is and what steps I took to rise from a classroom teacher in a poor high density suburb of Chitungwiza to be an international champion of girls` rights now running Girl Child Network Worldwide. Experiential training that I offer is based on my experience as a self confidence builder as well as a supporter of girls empowerment and the first grassroots teacher to start an organization and get eighteen most prestigious global awards for innovation, excellence and being advocate for girls rights . I started Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe in 1998 and since then I have seen thousands of girls now scattered round the world emerging to be some of the greatest leaders ever produced in Africa.
I learnt from my lived reality and it is this reality that evokes girls and women’s potential .My story is her story and her story and my story is our story.
As I walk through this journey of self discovery for self worth with young women and girls who want to be leaders, I call upon everyone to start the training with a positive mind that what they want is always what they get .Everyone is born confident and it is always the world around us that undermines this confidence through perceived victim mentality stemming from attitude, belief and practice.
The training is structured in eight sections and each section takes a day of thorough analysis, experience sharing in a free and safe environment ,mapping a plan to change and many activities like public speaking, poetry and musical performance will be done . Field visits to shelters of victims of violence and other such community activities will be done so that participants can be exposed to real life situations .
My mentees will be assisted to document this new journey through a journal that they make and keep as a treasure for this will guide their own monitoring and evaluation of the impact of training on their lives. Videos ,real life photos and stories will be shown to demonstrate stages of empowerment and confidence building.
If electricity can be generated, transmitted and distributed and make our homes shine and bring heat to cook and warm or cool us ,then the same goes with confidence building. If confidence is not generated by an individual it will die naturally and so will an individual. At the end of the seven day program ,trainee is left inspired to unleash her potential for innovative leadership.
Now relax, feel good, unique and be proud that you are on a journey to regain, boost and regain your self confidence and am right here anytime a girl or woman feels empowerment is the way to go.
Betty Makoni
Trainer
www.girlchildnetworkworldwide.org
Email:info@muzvarebettymakoni.org
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