Ending child marriages

Chiefs’ wives urged to help fight against Child marriages

Mchinji Police Station Officer In-Charge, Owen Maganga Wednesday urged wives of chiefs in the district to help fight against child marriages and Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the district.
He was speaking during the launch of an initiative called “Chiefs’ Wives Initiative on Ending Child Marriages,” which was held at Campus Lodge in the district.
“The overall goal of this initiative is to end gender based violence and child marriages in the district.
We want these young girls to go back to school and we believe that chiefs’ wives have a huge role to play in this initiative since they are well respected in their societies as such their voices carry weight,” Maganga said.
He lamented the ever increasing number of cases of child marriages in the district which was detrimental to the development of the district since most of these girls do not go further with their education.

“There have been an increase in the number of cases involving child marriages and gender based violence over the years,” the OC said.
He added, “As the Police we are really concerned with this trend and we believe that our coordination and cooperation with the Chiefs’ wives will help us address these issues for the betterment of our society,” Maganga explained.

Traditional Authority (TA) Pitala commended the Police for launching the initiative which she believes would help communities in Mchinji fight against child marriages.
“When girls marry early they face many challenges and problems both health wise and economically. There are issues like fistula which many times arise because the body is not ready for child bearing.

This initiative will help us address problems like these and will help keep our girls in schools so that they progress with their lives,” she said.
Pitala said that they have introduced by-laws which are aimed at curbing these vices and that they are aiming at identifying local traditions which may hamper the initiative.
The initiative which was also graced by representatives from Police Headquarters and Regional Office which were represented by Inspector Gift Likoswe and Sub-Inspector, Janet Thaulo respectively will be evaluated on a yearly basis to check its impact and progress.

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