GCN - Zimbabwe
GCN Students
IDEX began working with the Girl Child Network (GCN) in June 2001 and supports GCN’s mission to empower and educate girls while advocating against the cultural acceptance of abuse and exploitation of girls and women.
Headquartered in the township of Chitungwiza, just outside Harare, GCN was officially founded in 1998 by a former sixth grade teacher as a school club that provided much needed support and counseling to girls seeking to escape physical and sexual abuse in their schools and homes. The needs for such a support system for girls was immediately clear and the clubs soon became places for girls to come together to talk about the many aspects of life including HIV/AIDS, lack of educational opportunities, and cultural practices that exploited girls such as virginity testing, forced early marriages and inappropriate behavior from male family members.
Girls and women in low-income, high-density suburbs such as Chitungwiza and rural areas such as Hwange district in western Zimbabwe are often the victims of sexual violence and rape and receive little protection from authorities. With few opportunities to support themselves, some are driven into prostitution, (also called transactional sex – trading sex for food and shelter), while others are forced to marry very young and thus are often exploited by their much older husbands. Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection in Sub Saharan Africa, second only to South Africa, and young women are among the most likely to be infected.
In the face of these challenges, young girls and their teachers have responded enthusiastically to GCN's initiative by organizing their own school clubs and joining the network to share information and offer mutual support. GCN now boasts 500+ Girls Clubs with a membership of over 30,000 girls between the ages of 5-16, living in both rural and urban areas throughout the country. GCN provides school fees to girls whose families cannot afford to send them to school, and membership in the Girls Clubs where counseling, peer-to-peer support, leadership training, and HIV/AIDS prevention education take place. Additional programs include creative exploration through poetry, music, drama and writing as well as 'Women as Role Models' workshops where the girls have the opportunity to meet women in positions of leadership as examples of what they can accomplish. After all, the GCN motto is: “The Sky is the Limit.”
Additionally, GCN maintains three Empowerment Villages. These centers located in rural districts provide direct support to victims of rape and abuse and supports child-headed households (homes where both parents have died, most likely due to AIDS) by acting as safe houses for girls while a better situation is secured. The Empowerment Villages also provide skills training programs to empower girls to see beyond their current problems and obstacles and to plan for a positive future using the skills they acquire.
In 2006, IDEX entered its sixth year of partnership with GCN. Over the course of our partnership, IDEX has leveraged over $100,000 in direct and indirect support for GCN. With the support of IDEX, GCN was able to build their third rural Empowerment Village that is greatly supporting the underserved community of the Hwange District in western Zimbabwe.
Over the last several years, GCN has gained wide recognition for their work toward the empowerment of girls and the end to child sexual abuse. Though they, at times, have been a controversial organization in Zimbabwe, they continue to advance an agenda that supports women and girls in an overtly patriarchal society. Since GCN’s founding, they have witnessed and participated in women and girls speaking out against abuse and oppression in greater numbers each year.
GCN and IDEX are working together to share solutions on problems of poverty and on leveraging resources in the US for the benefit of communities in Zimbabwe.
