The ManicaPost
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Reporter
Chikukwa area in Chimanimani has increased incidents of early marriages, a development which has resulted in fewer girls reaching secondary school.
Chikukwa lies on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique where there has always been free movement of people from the two countries.
According to teachers at Chikukwa Primary School, at least three girls drop out of school every year to get married.
Speaking during a tour of the school by the Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) board members and senior executives this week, senior teacher Mr Blessing Mandozana said poverty was the leading cause of child marriage in the community.
“The child that I came here to teach is at a disadvantage. We have a total of 1 057 learners and of these, 502 are girls. Every year, we lose about two or three learners to child marriage. Some of them are not able to pay fees, so they drop out,” he said.
Although others might consider two girls a small number to lose to child marriages, there has been an outcry that the country should totally eliminate the scourge as it retards the development of the girl child, her community and the country at large.
The First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has been adding her voice to the call for Zimbabweans to desist from the culture of child marriages and empower the girl child with education.
Speaking in Beitbridge this week, Amai Mnangagwa said the future of children was anchored on the early foundation they get from their parents from a tender age up to adulthood.
However, for children in Chikukwa, education might be a difficult feat to attain considering the levels of poverty, which push some parents to remove them from school to look for employment or push them into marriage.
“We need to have awareness campaigns for these communities. We need such programmes so that we can reach the people with the message that early marriages do not benefit the child in any way but actually destroy their future,” said Mr Nyasha Dimingu, another teacher at the school.
He said if the children were exposed to other young women, who have attained education and are earning a decent living, they might be motivated to take their education seriously.
The school clerk, Ms Sharon Chavhunduka, said proximity to the Mozambican border was a major problem.
“We are close to the border with Mozambique, so there is a lot of interaction between these children and their counterparts there. Intermarriages are not an uncommon thing, so you find that early marriage has been normalised,” she said.
Once the marriages take place, parents also tend to sweep such issues under the carpet to protect themselves.
Ms Chavhunduka said as a result, people were now hesitant to report cases of child marriages.
“There is also the issue of gold panning, there is an area close by called Musanditeera, where there is rampant illegal gold panning. There is a lot that happens there and our children are attracted to such areas where they end up deciding that they want to get married to the person who has flashed a bit of money,” she said.
“We need to have some sort of entertainment to divert their minds from such areas so that they can go to school. We also need Government to come up with a private way of reporting such cases because people are no longer willing to witness to them.”
Some parents admit that poverty drives their children into such marriages.
“Life is very difficult for everyone, especially the parents. In this area, we have look for employment as a way of making ends meet. But once that child starts going to work, she meets with bad characters who then influence her resulting in her thinking that marriage is better than staying in school,” said Mr Gondai Mponda.
“As parents, we wish we could take care of our children but sometimes because of poverty, some find themselves in a situation where the child just elopes. And you have no choice but to accept it. But these parents need to instil values in their children and teach them the benefits of waiting and why early marriages are wrong.”
Zimpapers is one of the corporates that has gone into the community to assist in various areas. The company is building a two-classroom block to replace the ones that were destroyed by Cyclone Idai last year.
Zimpapers corporate services and public relations manager Ms Beatrice Tonhodzayi said child marriages were a cause for concern and corporates needed to come in to raise awareness against it.
“When we came here, we discovered that there were fewer girls at the secondary school and we were told that most children end at primary level, after that they are already married at such young ages. We are very touched by this issue. We embark on corporate social responsibility projects not for our benefit only, but so that the communities we work with can also develop. We want to see these children receive education and later coming back to help develop their own areas,” she said.
