Officials from the UN Women have revealed that they will extend a Women Economic Empowerment Project (WEEP) in Salima and Dedza, for a period of one year, with the aim of supporting girls rescued from child marriages.
Speaking with the Media in Salima on Tuesday after presenting the project to the district executive committee, UN women, elimination of Violence against Women specialist, Habiba Osman, said many girls that are rescued from early marriages are at risk of going back because of lack of support.
“This Project is interested to work with chiefs in Dedza and Salima who are already working to end child marriages in their areas,” said Osman.
Osman further explained that a lot of work has been done to prevent child marriages hence the need to support survivors of child marriages and gender based violence.
“The targeted girls will be imparted with basic digital and financial literacy skills, so that they will be able to return to school or if they want to start a small scale business,” said Osman.
The WEEP project will be implemented in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kachindamoto in Dedza and T/A Mwanza in Salima.
According to Francis Matita of UN Women, the two projects to be implemented are “We learn” which will focus on providing education to survivors of child marriages and the “Eliminating of Child Marriages” which aims at empowering chiefs and communities to end child marriages.
Matita said the two projects in the two districts will be supported with money amounting to K378 Million.
“Among others, the project shall provide bursaries for needy learners rescued from child marriages and support of legislations and other policy documents that aim at ending child marriages,” said Matita.
District Social Welfare Officer for Salima, Fedda Mbwana said the project is good for the district as it will help support efforts to end child labour.