CNN Heroes - Jackie

I believe that Betty Makoni should be selected as Hero of the Year. She founded the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe, an organization that addresses the many sexual assaults of women and girls in the country. In Zimbabwe, it is believed that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin, he will be cured. Because of this myth, girls are being sexually assaulted, and are infected with the HIV virus. Betty Makoni says that the youngest girl she had in her program was only a day old. Betty herself was assaulted at the age of 6. She was not allowed to report the incident. After watching her father murdering her mother, she swore to stick up for women and not be silenced. Betty Makoni founded this organization to help these girls get counseling and to save them from a terrible fate. Her work has helped to save 35,000 girls from being assaulted. The program gives the girls medical treatment, gets them back into school, and gives them counseling.
I believe that Betty should be selected because she is fighting for women’s rights with passion. Even though she was traumatized, she has turned thousands of girls’ lives around. Betty believes into standing up for the rights one was given. She stood up for these girls, and because of this, she was banished from her home country. She uses her bad experiences and changes them into miracles for women and girls in Zimbabwe. No one else would stand up for these girls, so she did. I think she is a really great role model. No matter how hard life gets, you just have to pick yourself up and move on and hope that you can make some good out of the bad. She did make good out of the bad. She has saved the lives of thousands of girls, and she is a hero.