Stakeholders Call for Action to End Child Marriages

One woman out of three in Zimbabwe aged 20 to 49 was married before the age of 18.  5% of girls are married before the age of 15.  Child marriage is one of the most widespread forms of violence against children. Child marriage disrupts childhood and deprives girls of their right to be a child. Child marriage often leads to school drop-out, not allowing girls to develop their full potential, and early pregnancies when a girl is mentally and physically not yet able to give birth and take care of a young child marriage deprives children of their right to acquire appropriate skills to enter the labour force as adults and pushes them further into poverty. Child marriage also increases the girl’s risk of domestic violence, psychological and physical violence, including sexual violence, and HIV infections. Zimbabwe has recently experienced an increase in teenage pregnancies. One-third of maternal deaths occur amongst adolescents. Child marriage has a negative impact on the development of the country, as girls married before having completed their education are limited in their job employment and their contribution to the economic development of the country.

Poverty is a major correlation of child abuse:

Poverty is a major correlation between child abuse and exploitation, including child marriage. Girls in the poorest communities are six times more likely to experience child marriage than their counterparts in higher wealth countries. For INERELA+ ending child marriage in Zimbabwe and protecting girls against the negative consequences of early marriage needs more than only legislation. It needs behavioural change in the communities. We capacitate Religious Leaders, community leaders and influential champions to advocate in their communities and at national and regional level against child marriage. INERELA+ Zimbabwe role model and East and Southern Africa HIVOS (SRHR) Fund ambassador Elder Paul Juru is very influential at Regional, national and community level where he stands-up and raise his voice in favour of a positive change in perception of the role of girls in society as evidenced under the link below.

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