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NEWSFLASH! September Series
Girl Child Network Trust (GCNT)
October 03, 2002

Hurray!! Our Girls Empowerment Village now officially opened
We finally did it!! Yes it happened at Chitsotso Girls Empowerment Village. Thank you all who graced the day. Rebecca Mano our board chairperson, MP Chipanga, Hope Chigudu, Judge President Bere, St. Luke’s Mrs. Maparura, all traditional chiefs: Makoni, Hwange, Chiduku, Nenguwo, Mukorewa, Mutasa, Seke. Our school heads, Mr. Mudzingwa our social welfare District officer, police, Signals band all club presidents .A million thanks for a day to be remembered forever. Thanks a million times also to Dr. Forster who represented Firelight Foundation and thanks to Firelight Foundation, the sole sponsor of this grand event. Yes we really feel empowered. All girls let’s make a date at the Empowerment Village. See you there!!

Rusape Girls Empowerment Village computerized and due to have email and internet
Congratulations again Rusape EV for getting the latest computers. We encourage the girls going for computer training to do so whole-heartedly. You never know where you will be tomorrow.

Girl Child Network Trust going through evaluation and auditing
The month of September has been very hectic as it is a month Girl Child Network Trust is going through an annual audit and evaluation. All club coordinators and girls should participate and coorporate at all levels to make sure the exercise program is a success.

Five hundred girls reinstated in schools
Activities for this month have been focused on reinstating girls back into school through providing them with school fees .Some girls from extremely poverty stricken families have received subsistence allowance to enable them to buy food and other basic necessities.

Hope Chigudu challenges women role models to support girls out of school
Due to the economic hardships being faced by the general Zimbabwean populace many children, girl-children in particular, who have been disadvantaged for a long time despite the above efforts to reinstate them in schools are dropping or are on the verge of dropping out of school as their poor parents and guardians are failing to provide school fees and other basic needs and related educational requirements. This month saw GCNT moving to areas with high school drop-outs to try and assist some girls with school fees. Some women role models like Hope Chigudu touched by the plight of girls have moved in to identify orphaned girls to sponsor to university level. The women role models are planning to mobilize each other at local level and identify girls in need of help through GCNT. They hope to meet the needs of the girls and to send them to school and meet some of their basic needs whilst in school. So far any women role models are free to contact GCNT and donate anything in cash and in kind to include school fees, uniforms and shoes. One brilliant rural lower six girl needs urgent assistance to enable her to continue with her education. Please women role models call!!!

Self-help projects
The self-help projects i.e. the grinding mill and peanut butter- making project have been running smoothly with at least 50 underprivileged girls mostly from child headed families involved and benefiting.

September activities have also been concentrated on the Chitungwiza Grinding mill and peanut butter-making project. Girls have been involved in preparing mealie-meal and making peanut butter for sale. This is a self-help project aimed at helping teenage mothers, school leavers and victims of sexual abuse while at the same time keeping girls out of promiscuous activities and economic dependence on men. The current maize shortage has been impacting on the project negatively. The Hwange girls have beautiful toilet sets and bed spreads. Feel free to make an order!

Girls need relief assistance during drought
At least one hundred girls from some homes and clubs visited during the trips undertaken by Girl Child Network Trust and preliminary results of the evaluation to assess the effects of the drought on girls have shown that if no urgent assistance is sought some girls may suffer malnutrition and maybe death due to hunger. Those mostly affected are orphaned young girls who are now seriously exploited through labor in order to get food for their siblings. Malnurishment is evident in most girls the organisation spoke to. The problem of hunger has reached unbelievable heights such that GCNT has taken it as an issue that is directly threatening its programs and has also started appealing for humanitarian assistance.

Child sexual abuse cases continue to rise
With the commencement of September GCNT has received at least eight cases of rape involving girls aged three to five years. This is one problem currently bedeviling the country and the organisation is now overwhelmed with serious cases of child sexual abuse involving especially girls aged five years and under. In a bid to curb the menace GCNT and the girls are organizing a reflective meeting to take place in Rusape. Through the meeting all stakeholders will try to come up with ways of assisting girls seriously affected.

As a result there has been a lot of traveling on the part of the director and the counselor as regards to case follow-ups and home visits. This societal scourge of child abuse has been continuing unabated and GCNT had to make home visits and case follow-ups in order to assist the victims either with rehabilitation or sanctuary in the Empowerment Centers. As regards rape cases, the youngest victim is aged 3 years, and she is now recuperating under the care of the GCNT while the case is awaiting legal recourse.

Home and club visits
The nation is currently reeling from the effects of drought and as such there has been a need for relief assistance to girls seriously affected by the food shortage. This month has seen GCNT making home and club visits to four areas of operation to assess the immediate and long-term repercussions of the phenomenon. Even evaluators who have been part to some of these visits have seen and realized that there are children languishing in dire poverty. There have been cases of girl children suffering from kwashiorkor and other malnutrition-related diseases. The situation is quite pathetic and home and club visits have helped GCNT to compile a list of girls seriously affected by drought. Many a time GCNT has come to their aid with donations of school fees, money for food, clothes, uniforms and shoes.

Annual awards and Prizes
On 26 October 2002 in Rusape the best club, coordinator, GCNT worker, responsible adult in community, school head and club president of the year will walk away with cash prizes. Look forward to the day.

More news coming next month. Just watch out!

Contact details
Rufaro Marira
131 Unit F Seke , Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe
P.O. Box CZA 239, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: 070-31132
Cell: 023-515726 / 011-753611
E-mail: gcn@africaonline.co.zw

Visit the GCNT fact sheet

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