FIRELIGHT FOUND ATION

FIRELIGHT GRANTEE-PARTNERS RECEIVE NATIONAL
AND INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Firelight’s recent recognition by Barron’s Magazine is an endorsement of the crucial importance of the work of grassroots
organizations on the frontline of Africa’s struggle against HIV/AIDS—groups that most international donors do not reach.
Most of Firelight’s grantee-partners began as tiny volunteer efforts in small, often rural settings. But they offer the kinds of
services for vulnerable children that can only be designed and provided by people from the same communities as those
children. Both the effectiveness of these community organizations and the strength of their leaders have drawn the world’s
attention in the past year.
Girls’ rights activist Betty Makoni of Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe was chosen as one of the Outstanding Young
Persons of the World of 2007 by Junior Chamber International (JCI), a worldwide federation of young leaders and
entrepreneurs. She received the award at the JCI World Congress in Antalya, Turkey, for her “humanitarian and voluntary
leadership.” Makoni became a Firelight grantee-partner soon after she founded the Girl Child Network. Today, the Girl Child
Network operates 450 clubs serving 30,000 girls in most of the rural districts of Zimbabwe. During the year, she also was
elected to the Ashoka Fellowship of global change-makers, featured in the book Women Who Light the Dark and profiled in
the documentary film, “Tapestries of Hope.”
Makoni was also awarded the Global Friend’s Award and was named the winner of the annual World’s Children’s Prize
for the Rights of the Child in 2007. These two awards were established by the Swedish Children’s World Association to
recognize the outstanding contributions of those who defend youth rights.
Maxwell Matewere of Eye of the Child in Malawi was appointed by the Malawian government to serve as a law
commissioner developing national human trafficking legislation. He is working to reform and strengthen Malawi’s
contradictory laws governing adoption in an effort to protect the nation’s orphans and vulnerable children. Matewere and Eye
of the Child were in the international news when the organization questioned aspects of pop singer Madonna’s fast-tracked
adoption of a Malawian orphan in
2007. “Madonna might have good intentions, but we must follow the law to the letter to avoid a situation where criminals
with money might take advantage to abuse our children,” he told the BBC. Firelight supports Eye of the Child’s programs that
mobilize communities and provide training in child rights, child care, and vocational skills for youth.
Firelight grantee-partner Lydia Muso of the Lesotho Child Counselling Unit (LCCU) won a South African Community
Award for her leadership of efforts to provide a temporary safe home for the care of sexually, physically, and emotionally
abused children. She placed second out of 1,000 competitors. Since 2004, Firelight has supported LCCU’s efforts to offer