Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellenous Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Behold, the social entrepreneur
- 1 The man who invented a chicken: Introducing a global generation of entrepreneurial social activists
- 2 Raising the voices of girl-children: Pyramids, incubators and the fight for equality
- 3 The incredible rise of co-operatives: Conscious consumption… slow fashion… ethical exploration… and more…
- 4 How do you know you are making a difference? The metrics and measures that keep the social entrepreneuron-mission
- 5 A trip to the favela: The death and life of traditional charity
- 6 Inside the social enterprise city: How change happens, locally and globally
- 7 The bull market of the greater good: Fact, fiction and the rise of big-money activism
- 8 The digital device in the wall: #peoplepower meets the block-chain
- 9 Reclaiming the heart of government: Power in the age of the moral marketplace
- Conclusion: Creating a new kind of capitalism
- Notes and references
- Index
2 - Raising the voices of girl-children: Pyramids, incubators and the fight for equality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellenous Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Behold, the social entrepreneur
- 1 The man who invented a chicken: Introducing a global generation of entrepreneurial social activists
- 2 Raising the voices of girl-children: Pyramids, incubators and the fight for equality
- 3 The incredible rise of co-operatives: Conscious consumption… slow fashion… ethical exploration… and more…
- 4 How do you know you are making a difference? The metrics and measures that keep the social entrepreneuron-mission
- 5 A trip to the favela: The death and life of traditional charity
- 6 Inside the social enterprise city: How change happens, locally and globally
- 7 The bull market of the greater good: Fact, fiction and the rise of big-money activism
- 8 The digital device in the wall: #peoplepower meets the block-chain
- 9 Reclaiming the heart of government: Power in the age of the moral marketplace
- Conclusion: Creating a new kind of capitalism
- Notes and references
- Index
Summary
I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. (Khalil Gibran)
The mentor
For Mzuvare Betty Makoni it sprang from a grave and terrible betrayal. As a child growing up in Zimbabwe in the 1970s she sold tomatoes and candles. Then at the age of only six she was raped by a local man in her neighbourhood. The crime, shamefully, was hushed up. She would later recall:
‘I remember my mum using salt and whatever she could use to treat me. The whole abuse left physical and psychological trauma, everything stuck into my sub-conscience … He thought raping little girl would make him rich … a belief that raping virgins brings luck. I grew up a very angry girl … I told myself whatever happens, I will confront every rapist.’
In time she would become a teacher, looking after classrooms of young girls. She knew what many of them were going through all too well; terrible crises of adolescence and outrage and, sadly, many had been through similar things to her. She became their trusted, compassionate confidante. In her classes, beyond the numbers and letters of the curriculum, the seed of something grew. It would, through care and application, become the Girl Child Network (GCN).
As the girls shared their stories and encouraged each other, as they spoke and were listened to, something wonderful happened. Girls who appeared to be at risk of going off the rails found a new strength and purpose in this safe environment. Results improved; aspirations grew. Some girls found that they were particularly effective listeners and facilitators and they brought new girls into the network. Some even came to run their own groups.
To give you a sense of the scale of the problem we are dealing with here, consider GCN’s own statistics. Some 60 million girls are said to leave school before they are 15 years old. In Zimbabwe alone thousands are raped annually, with many going unreported. Genital mutilation, child marriage and other ‘harmful cultural practices’ mean that girls are five times more likely to be exposed to HIV/AIDS than boys. Girls in the classroom may be encouraged to marry or be raped by teachers.
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- The Moral MarketplaceHow Mission-Driven Millennials and Social Entrepreneurs are Changing Our World, pp. 46 - 63Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2018