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April 19,
2002
Memory
Bandera '04 to Discuss Helping Girls in Zimbabwe
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
Memory
Bandera '04
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They had become accustomed
to the boys' efforts to drown out their voices when they raised
their hands in the classroom. They had become used to seeing boys
holding all the leadership positions in all the school clubs.
But on this particular afternoon, after being taunted that they
would never be as good as the boys, these girls had had enough.
On that day, Memory
Bandera '04 and a half-dozen of her classmates at the Zengeza
1 High School in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, met with their teacher
after class to discuss the inequality between boys and girls in
their native country. That talk grew into an informal discussion
group, which evolved into The Girl Child Network Trust, a nonprofit
organization that conducts awareness campaigns, workshops, panel
discussions, conferences, leadership and training programs, and
fundraising projects throughout Zimbabwe. The group, now with
fifty clubs and more than 3,000 members at schools across that
African nation, has constructed a safe house and is building a
"safe village" for victims of child sexual abuse.
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Members of The Girl Child Network
Trust in Zimbabwe
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Bandera will discuss
her group's origin, goals, the needs she witnessed, and accomplishments
during a multimedia presentation Wednesday, April 24, in room
101 of Dwight Hall at 7 pm. Members of the audience are asked
to bring an article of summer clothing suitable for a girl age
two to sixteen. Bandera's talk is sponsored by the Council of
Deacons, a leadership and fellowship organization for Protestant
students that is based at Eliot House.
Girls in Zimbabwe
face serious problems, Bandera said, from sexual abuse to homelessness
to forced marriage. An estimated 30 percent of the 1,500 people
who die of AIDS each week in Zimbabwe are girls between the ages
of fifteen and eighteen. In some parts of the country, boys are
more likely than girls to be sent to school, because young men
will have more job opportunities after graduation, justifying
the expense of their education. As a result, some girls engage
in prostitution or are forced into arranged marriages.
The Girl Child Network
Trust aims to give moral, educational, and financial support to
girls, connecting them with one another and building their self-confidence.
"Most of these girls don't have any opportunities,"
Bandera says. "I'm trying to get them to have equal opportunities.
I urge everyone to think about those children who are in the dark
hours of their lives because they have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS
or have been abused."
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