By Panashe David Babi
The National AIDS Council (NAC) engaged traditional leaders from four provinces in a pilot program meant to capacitate and support them in curbing child marriages and child pregnancies.
Through a powerful tagline: #notinmyvillage campagn, the event which was held in Gweru on the 31st of March involved various stakeholders such as Young People’s Network on Health and Wellbeing, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ministry of Health and Child Care, Ministry of local Governance, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Judicial Service Commission and the Ministry of Women Affairs amongst others.
The National AIDS Council which was the coordinating authority highlighted the importance of the event after a realisation that traditional leaders who are the custodian of our cultural norms have a major impact in influencing societal behaviours.
“This campaign is meant to empower chiefs with information on the problems happening in their areas especially teenage pregnancies and child marriages so that they take control of stopping child pregnancies & child marriages in their communities because they are custodians of our culture, if the chiefs say no to child marriages in their jurisdiction, it will go a long way” said NAC National Youth Coordinator Beauty Nyamwanza.
Mr Mbetsa, Director in the Department of Traditional leaders support services under the Ministry of Local Governance and Public Works noted the importance of traditional leaders in providing a positive influence in their local communities:
“Chiefs are a major force and positive influence in controlling this problem(child marriages) because it is more community based and socially unacceptable, if the authority of the chiefs is re-imposed in our communities, we think the community will be able to go back to their morals and increase their capacity to control these wayward activities by our young people especially the young girls and boys who will need a lot of mentoring and need a lot of guidance if we are to control this problem” said Mr Mbetsa.
The campaign which started in Mashonaland Central on 26 August 2024 was launched by President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa with a goal of ending child marriages, crucial in that drive is a youth oriented organisation, the Young People’s Network on Health and Wellbeing.
Speaking at the side-lines of the event, National Facilitator for the Young People’s Network for Health and Wellbeing, Dumisani Ngwenya reiterated the importance of traditional leaders in making the campaign a success.
“Our goal and vision is to target young people so that they realize their potential especially in the economic development, we want to feed into the vision 2030 where we want to have young people who are educated”
“Whenever children are impregnated or in child marriages they end up dropping out of school but we want to harness demographic dividends as you know that we have over 33% of our population being young people between ages of 10-24 years so we want to harness from those demographics so that we have human development, economic growth and improve our health,” said Dumisani Ngwenya.
The four day event left no stone unturned as all issues that exacerbate child marriages were brought on the agenda and possible solutions tabled by present traditional leaders at the workshop who came from these four provinces: Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Manicaland and Matebeleland South.
Chief Chinamora from Mashonaland East highlighted some of the issues which caused child marriages such as: poverty, drug and substance abuse, social media misuse, the breakdown of the traditional extended family structure as well as cultural erosion.
Other traditional leaders also agreed on these issues as the primary cause of child marriages with great emphasis on the misuse of social media as well as cultural erosion.
Traditional leaders cited that the misuse of social media has caused a negative influence amongst the young population as it drives them to indulge in sexual activities before they are of age.
Additionally, drug abuse was also revealed as another troublesome substance that influenced children to do sexual activities leading to staggering numbers of child pregnancies.
The workshop also revealed that there are cases where children are forced to indulge in sexual activities due to poverty.
Provinces with increased mining as well as farming activities have been severely impacted with the issue of child marriages due to poverty.
Information revealed at the workshop highlighted that in some mining communities, children are driven to sad and horrific activities such as prostitution as a means of survival.
In some areas where there are road networks that link Zimbabwe with the rest of the region, children have also not been spared from prostitution as they try to get money by selling their bodies to local and regional truckers.
Traditional leaders appealed to the government to increase as well as enhance the payment of fees to underprivileged children, girls in particular as a measure of empowering them as well as giving them a better chance at life.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police also roped in and applauded the National AIDS Council, Young People’s Network for Health and Wellbeing, UNFPA, government ministries as well as other stake holders in taking up this initiative which will curb child exploitation and sexual abuse as the constitution clearly underlines that children under the age of 18 should not be married and engage in sexual activities.
Zimbabwe Republic Police Midlands Provincial spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko highlighted how the initiative will help with the strategies to curb child marriages and also encouraged the general public to safeguard and alert authorities on such crimes.
“It is a very noble idea we hope this workshop will bring lasting solutions, we want to encourage the general public to learn from our traditional leaders and prioritise safeguarding the girl child”
“This workshop will bring new strategies and will go a long way in making sure the Zimbabwe Republic Police and traditional leaders work hand in glove in their respective jurisdictions and work towards eradicating child marriages and child sexual exploitation” said Inspector Mahoko.
The event, after different models and strategies are agreed upon at national level is also expected to be rolled out at provincial, district and ward level, reaching each and every village from the village head to the chief in an effort to increase reach.
The National AIDS Council also announced further campaigns across the country particularly in rural areas to make sure the message ‘NOT IN MY VILLAGE ’ is echoed across the country.