By Lemani Makina
In a society where parents perceive child marriage as a relief to their economic burdens while traditional leaders see it as a means of enhancing their influence, challenging the practice is a sensitive and risky venture. Nonetheless, in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Mkhumba in Phalombe district, 28-year-old Mercy Musowa stands out against the vice.
Mercy defied the inevitable consequences and resolved to challenge the harmful practice in her village. However, being a wife to a chief, it meant she had to firstly convince her husband that child marriage is a vice that should not be entertained in the village. Mercy had to gather her courage as chieftainships often receive more respect and recognition when the village has more households, making child marriage key for gaining influence as a traditional leader.
Mercy grew up seeing child marriage robbing the future of bright girls, with some being married off before they even celebrated their fifteenth birthday. Over the years, Mercy has witnessed early childbearing affecting the health of her peers who were forced into child marriage. However, Mercy’s resolve to challenge child marriages lacked some necessary knowledge and skills to effectively engage to annul the prevalent child marriages and prevent further occurrences in her village. Luckily, YONECO, under the Sustaining Community Women Movement for Peacebuilding and Response Project, trained chiefs’ wives to drive sustainable social change in their designated communities, and Mercy was one of the participants.
“The training opened my eyes and gave me the courage I lacked. The training equipped me to ably speak up even in spaces where silence was expected,” explained Mercy Musowa. In the first quarter of 2026, Mercy has managed to facilitate the termination of two child marriages. She even went further to ensure that the girls who were withdrawn from the marriages have returned to school. In addition to this, Mercy has been organizing various sensitization meetings on the dangers of child marriages targeting adolescent girls, parents and various community gatekeepers.
Mercy has been effectively exploiting her position as a chief’s wife which she never knew would give her a platform and a listening ear from the communities.
“I no longer fear challenging child marriage. I am empowered and driven to protect adolescents in my community,” she added.
YONECO is implementing the Sustaining Community Women Movement for Peacebuilding and Response Project in Phalombe and Machinga districts with funding from Women Peace in Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) in partnership with UN Women.
