United Nation Women (UNW)Executive Board President, Ivana Pajevic has hailed government for its commitment to ensuring that cases of child marriages in the country are reduced to manageable levels.
She said this Tuesday when she visited Mtakataka at the Headquarters of Senior Chief Kachindamoto in Dedza to appreciate how the UN HE4SHE initiative in being implemented.
Pajevic said the HE4SHE initiative is bearing fruits as more children are being rescued from early marriages and are encouraged to return to school.
She believed that the initiative aims at empowering the girl child to have access to education thereby enabling them to be useful citizens and contribute to the development of their areas.
“The UNW delegation has been impressed with the rive senior chief Kachindamoto has taken to make sure that her area is free from cases of child marriages,” UNW delegation Leader stated.
Pajevic said the chief need a collective coordination among communities in order to address the challenges being faced to counter the vice of child marriages as results of some cultural norms.
She pointed out communities should value education as the only key to overcome incidences of child marriages in their communities.
Pajevic urged the communities to uphold the formulated by-laws to ensure that child marriages are being discouraged by all stakeholders.
United Nations Women (UNW) Resident representative to Malawi, Clara Anyangwe said Father and Mother groups of Senior Chief Kachindamoto have been instrumental in the fight against ending child marriages in the area.
Anyangwe disclosed that the initiate of ending child marriage in the area would continue with financial support from Norway and a news programme called Spotlight initiate both aiming at ending child marriages.
Deputy Director responsible for Administration in the Ministry of Children Disability, Community and Social Welfare Patrick Ndasauka explained that government views child marriages as one of the problems the country was facing in promoting girl’s education.
He said various stakeholders need to provide a number intervention to make sure that cases of child marriages in various communities are reduced drastically so that the education systems should be provide solution to their needs.
Senior Chief Kachindamoto expressed concern that children rescued from early marriages are facing challenges of schools fees.
She added that those that have been rescued they failed to secure employment after school because they don’t have vocational skills to enable to earn a living.
Over 2,549 children have been rescued from early marriages in the area of Senior chief Kachindamoto.
The area has 551 villages with 51 Group Village headmen and there are 31 female chiefs in the areas who have been in the forefront in curbing child marriages with the support of UNW and World Vision Malawi.