Last Spring I attended a conference in San Diego and had the pleasure of sharing my room with a Sharon Dziruni, a lovely lady who is currently living in the UK but was orignally from Zimbabwe. Sharon and I share a common interest in learning to reach people on the internet. Sharon has been an inspiration to me in several ways. First she has made major advances in building a web site to answer questions and meet the needs of many women. Second, she has expanded my vision to see the challenges women face in other parts of the world.
Through Sharon, I became acquainted with a young woman by the name of Taremeredzwa Nomatter Mapungwana. Taremeredzwa is an 18 year old girl from Mutare, Zimbabwe who hopes someday to be a doctor. Both of her parents are teachers at a local primary school.
However, Taremerdzwa is suffering from a non-cancerous aggressive benign tumor involving facial bones (CEMENTO OSSIFYING FIBROMA). This has affected both of her jaws, and has spread to her eyes as well as her neck. She is about to undergo surgery to remove the tumor and complete a re section of the mandible as well as a partial re section of the maxilla (i.e. removal, grinding and re-arrangement of the lower part of her face).
Through an appeal on Facebook and generosity of many Taremeredzwa has been transported to England and is getting the surgery and medical care she needs. If you would like follow her story you can see it on Facebook “Taremeredzwa- We care” page.
Taremeredzwa still faces tremendous obstacles along her road to recovery. However, Taremeredzwa is only one girl of thousands in Zimbabwe who need our help. Zimbabwe is one of many countries where young girls are being victimized. While reading about Taremerdzwa I was lead to an organization called Girl Child Network.
Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network (www.gcn.org.zw) in Zimbabwe in 1998. She and 10 high school girls established a girls club in a local high school to combat the kind of terrible sexual abuse that Betty herself had undergone and that many girls were enduring from teachers, relatives, and even, officials. They marched across the country; they organized campaigns to teach girls their rights; they built empowerment villages to enable abused girls to heal and support each other.
I was so impressed by the work of this lady that I felt moved to write this article and share both Taremeredzwa’s story and that of Betty Makoni and Girl Child Network. Betty has been selected to be one of CNN’s top 10 Heroes of 2009. She gets my vote. Cast your vote for your favorite CNN 2009 Hero below.