From Boy's Town to Girl Child Network...

I haven’t writing in a very long time. I am rather ashamed to admit it. There are often times when I am driving or right before I fall asleep I remember something that changed my view of thinking and opened up my limited perception. There are times when I am just doing things around the house and I start to think, and words, more so word phrases come to mind. Most of the time they are original and not the cheesy melodramatic overused phrases that describe the scrumptiousness over microwaveable food. Isn’t everything microwaveable now? That’s still a new idea worthy of advertisement? We bought my mom a microwave for Mother’s Day almost thirty years ago.

Ok. I am so getting side tracked here. . . Focus.

A friend of mine asked me to join her for a group meeting in Oakland last night. It was kind of last minute since her two other guest both came down with a flu type bug, and no it wasn’t swine flu. So it truly was my lucky day. However, I should have recalled lessons learned in journalism school to always have, a pen, paper, camera, and or some form of recording device with me at all times. I wasn’t sure if I should have gone home to gather it all, or if I should go with what I had on. My pastor always tells the congregation be ready to give an account as living epistles in and out of season.

My friend is no ordinary friend. She’s an old fashion wrangler in our new millennium. She takes the stubborn ones, the lost ones, the challenged ones, the well to do ones, and steers us all together in a mixing pot. Which one am I you may ask? Take a guess! And then simply asks us all questions. Simply shares ideas. Simply let’s the natural unfold. In my life she has swung wide, doors that were heavier than anything Brunelleschi could have ever dreamt up.

One of the directors for The Global Fund for Women (http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/cms/) invited us to her home in Oakland, to hear Betty share her story. On the way to Oakland we talk about more of what we are going to see and hear. I knew about Betty Makoni and her work from one of the first times I talked to my friend. The events that transpired in one of her first journey’s to Africa were so graphically detailed that they stay in my brain too, and I now too share in the journey of Africa with her. I know her Africa stories too and tell them often to my girlfriends over beers at Trials.

Betty Makoni (https://girlchildnetwork.org/) is a woman from Zimbabwe who suffered physical abuse, lost her mother to domestic violence, and was looking for an escape. Through a series of events in her life she started a program called Girl Child Network. On the front page of the website she is quoted saying the following,

“The stories we listened to made us bleed inside, the genital wounds we later had to help nurse evoked us, the long distances we travelled every day and night to educate girls on their rights made us strong, the songs of joy and sorrow the girls sang made us more passionate, everything to do with girlhood and the fact that we were there for the girls pushed us to do even more and more from the heart, soul, mind and all. The fact that we finally claimed the girls` spaces where the girls now live and develop free of violence makes it imperative that we share the great tidings.”

 It started off as a girls club, a safe haven where girls could come and just be themselves. It soon turned into a rescue mission and girls were fleeing homes where they had been raped, molested, and beaten. She said in her speech.                

“girls who were so badly raped that semen was coming out of them for days after they had arrived.”

Those words echo in the chambers of my heart, as I try to swallow the lump in my throat this morning. One of the directors for The Global Fund for Women invited Betty to come to the bay area and spend her 10^th year as Director for GCN anniversary with us. She describes the first grant proposal that she wrote and how she suffered the equipment to even write it. She had a typewriter on the floor and she didn’t have the ‘E’ key. She finally ended up sending the proposal for the grant in writing. In the last 10 years she has suffered greatly on a personal level, and as a group. But she has also survived. Can I get an Amen? An African praise dance to that? She has always kept going. She has over 60,000 girls that have survived rape, molestation, or some form of abuse in their lives. How about another African praise dance for survival of girls in Zimbabwe?

Can you imagine? 60,000 girls in Zimbabwe alone. She mentioned how she has worn so many hats, and have earned so many certificates in knowledge. That she was a nurse to these girls. That she was an architect, as she designed the village. She was a financier, as she sent out proposals, and budgeted the accounts. She was a cook. She was a counselor. She is an empower. She has empowered the girls of Zimbabwe to not only feel safe but to think like a princess. To treat one another like a princess.

Immediately, I thought of the final scene in Boy’s Town where Spencer Tracy and Mikey Rooney shine on the silver screen.

I thought who’s going to tell Betty’s story? Who will play her in the movie? Maybe Angela Bassett? A movie filled with compassion, trails, and triumphs like none other. Will we ever capture all that has happened in Betty’s life or with the girls of the Girl Child Network?

She wrote a poem last night. Describing her ten years as Director for the Girl Child Network and she states this as the end of her message of solidarity last night. She calls this poem Nineteen ninety nine to Oh Oh Nine!!!!! (The Oh Oh, are sighs and tears)

I have seen them all

Shockers and shakers

Starters and strugglers

Winners and losers

Ninety ninety-nine to Oh oh nine!

Girls of power

And girls of the poor with great potential

And girls distanced

I have seen them all in one decade

Organization of friends

And organizations of foes

Organizations infiltrated

Oh oh nine!!!

Directors who founded organizations

And directors who find organizations

Directors who make sense

And directors who make cents

Directors of passion

And directors of pastime

Staff who perform

And staff who perforate

Staff who give excuse

And staff who give excess

Boards that stay on board

And board overboard

Boards duly elected

And boards fully ejected

Governments of the people

And governments off the people

Governments voted by the people

And governments vetoed by the people

Donors who interfere

And donors who are freer

Donors who underestimate

And donors who understand

Patriarchal husbands of gender activist

Patriotic husbands of gender activist

Sympathetic behind the scenes supporters

And front line pretenders and hypocrites

Oh oh nine from nineteen ninety nine

I have felt it al

Thought it all

Said it all

Oh oh nine from nineteen ninety nine.

I drove home with my friend. We shared our thoughts and views and memories. The joy for the love came back into my belly. I researched more about Global Fund for Women. Found them on Facebook, and joined. After joining, it asked me to publish why I did it! The answer was simple. I do it for my grandmother, my mother, my sister, my sisters, and my friends. I do it for ME. I do it because I am reminded of the beauty of women in Proverbs and how privileged I am to be a woman. The proverbs from the Uncreated One reads...

A good woman is hard to find,

and worth far more than diamonds.

Her husband trusts her without reserve,

and never has reason to regret it.

Never spiteful, she treats him generously

all her life long.

She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,

and enjoys knitting and sewing.

She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places

and brings back exotic surprises.

She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast

for her family and organizing her day.

She looks over a field and buys it,

then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.

First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,

rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.

She senses the worth of her work,

is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,

diligent in homemaking.

She's quick to assist anyone in need,

reaches out to help the poor.

She doesn't worry about her family when it snows;

their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.

She makes her own clothing,

and dresses in colorful linens and silks.

Her husband is greatly respected

when he deliberates with the city fathers.

She designs gowns and sells them,

brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.

Her clothes are well-made and elegant,

and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.

When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say,

and she always says it kindly.

She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,

and keeps them all busy and productive.

Her children respect and bless her;

her husband joins in with words of praise:

"Many women have done wonderful things,

but you've outclassed them all!"

Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.

The woman to be admired and praised

is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.

Give her everything she deserves!

Festoon her life with praises!