YONECO has intensified efforts to spur collective action towards ending child marriages in Mulanje district by engaging parents, traditional leaders, and various community gatekeepers.
Child marriage is one of the violations of rights that has perpetuated women’s overreliance on men, which exposes them to health problems due to early childbearing and Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
Among other initiatives, YONECO’s strategic engagements have focused on promoting the modification of harmful practices that fuel child marriages in the district.
In one of the meetings, village heads from the Area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Njema acknowledged that poverty is a significant factor contributing to child marriage in their area. The traditional leaders concurred that child marriage worsens poverty rather than alleviating it.
In this undertaking, YONECO is collaborating with the district’s social welfare office, the police victim support unit, and other key stakeholders.
YONECO has scheduled additional engagement sessions to ensure that the rights of the girl child are respected in the area. So far, a total of 145 community gatekeepers, traditional leaders, members of various community rights committees and parents have been reached under the initiative.
