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Noah Pito Correspondent
Child marriages have been described as a thorn in the flesh of many young girls. Whether for religious and cultural reasons or greed by parents who after receiving a handsome bride price from a yielding “son-in-law” turn a blind eye to their child’s age, the practice is frowned upon by many.

Interventions on how to deal with the issue have been suggested some resulting in notable changes.

Hurungwe District in Mashonaland West Province is a good example of the role leadership can play to end this scourge.

The province has declared zero tolerance on child marriages to safeguard the education of the girl child.

A programme dubbed “Operation Siyana neMwana weChikoro (OSMC)” is already in full swing to expose and bring to book those who have married under-age girls from schools.

OSMC has, in fact, turned into a monster that has forced some culprits to flee the district to evade prosecution.

The operation has also sent tremors across the communities not only to those with under-age spouses but even some rich sugar daddies who are likely to have caused some minors to drop out of school after impregnating and dumping them.

Those still having sexual relationships with such girls are not being spared either.

Speaking to The Herald last week, Hurungwe district administrator Ms Tsana Chirau – who also chairs the District Development Committee (DDC) that endorsed the setting up of the operation – said the initiative was adopted as a result of the shocking rate at which the area was losing school girls to early marriages.

“Of course, after going round our schools as the entire DDC, we discovered that the dropout rate among our girls was very astronomical.

“We discovered that even those girls whose education is being funded by some benevolent organisations working in the area are not spared.

“This became ample confirmation that the major driving force into pregnancy and early marriages on the part of the girls was not poverty but that we have some rogues in our midst who do not respect the law. I mean those people who are naturally on the prowl for the minors.

“OSMC does not only target those who marry under-age girls but also those who impregnate them or establish sexual relationships with them. We are saying leave them alone until they complete their education. It’s only then that one can approach them for marriage.

“We are saying let the law take its course on the culprits while the girl is given a second chance to complete her education. If we do not come in with such interventions the future of these innocent souls will always be a bleak one. “Remember that most of them are so young that they still need to be taken care of by their parents. How then do you expect such minors to raise their own families?” she asked.

Hurungwe District Education Officer Mr Jason Dzveta said he hoped the programme will yield very positive results judging from the support it is receiving from the community.

He concurred with Ms Chirau particularly on the need to have the victims reintegrated back to formal schools so that they complete their education for a better future.

“In most places that we have visited the girls are showing interest in going back to school, maybe it is because they are now realising that they were taken advantage of when they entered into these premature unions.

“Although we have a few cases where some parents have refused to co-operate in order to protect their sons-in-law, in the majority of cases the girls’ parents are complementing our efforts.

“In all our 95 secondary schools in the district we target to reduce the dropout rate among our girls from an average of between four to five girls per school per year to about two per school per year by the end of 2015.

“Currently, if resources come our way, we wish to embark on a sensitisation programme where we will incorporate the traditional and church leadership including all other key stakeholders in the area. This can help us in educating our people so that the education of the girl child is safeguarded and continues undisturbed,” he said.

According to Mr Dzveta, taxi and kombi drivers rank top among the major perpetrators while two cases so far handled involved members of the Johanne Marange apostolic sect.

He said the impending sensitisation programme would thus also target kombis, beerhalls and churches to make sure a wider spectrum of the community was reached.

Chief Dendera of Hurungwe said he was behind the operation which he said called for the participation of everyone especially villagers and other community leaders to succeed.

“Such perpetrators should not only face justice at the magistrates’ courts. Even after serving jail sentences they still should be handed over to traditional leaders to face justice the traditional way. Taking an under-age girl for a wife is an abomination that wreaks havoc with our tradition.

“It therefore means such errant people must also be chastised the traditional way. It is taboo to whisk a minor from school in the name of marriage. Sometimes it is due to greedy parents who accept the bride price at the expense of the life and education of their child,” he fumed.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) launched its first ever programme in the country at Magunje Growth Point last Thursday after noticing the high rate of child marriages in Mashonaland West, currently pegged at 41,9 percent.

The multi-country initiative dubbed the Safeguard Young People Programme (SYP) was launched by the Deputy Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Cde Mathew Tongofa, at a colourful ceremony attended by thousands of people among them civil servants, school- children and villagers.

Among other issues, SYP seeks to highlight issues affecting young people especially the girls with regards to teenage pregnancy, child marriages, gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections and HIV. It also promotes youth empowerment, youth investment and youth rights in Zimbabwe.

At the launch, SYP ambassador Makanaka Wakatama almost came to tears as she narrated her heart-rending ordeal in a marriage she entered at 15.

“I faced complications when giving birth and went through two Caesarean sections, I also suffered stress and high blood pressure. By the age of 17 I was a mother of two yet the marriage never worked . . .

After I attained the age of 18 I found my own means of freeing myself from the shackles of such a marriage. What do you think you can say in a union where the husband is about 35 and you are just 15. You have no decision to make and no voice to be heard. Please all the young girls here, I am giving you a first-hand experience of the rigours I went through in an early marriage. Please take heed of the advice given by parents so that you can have a bright future …” said Makanaka.

Zimbabwe is one of the eight countries that are part of SYP. Funding for the six-year, two-phased programme was secured from the Swiss Development Corporation by the UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Of- fice.

Mashonaland West Province ranks second in terms of child marriages after Mashonaland Central whose child marriage rate stands at 50.4 percent.

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