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Herald Correspondent

HARARE South Member of Parliament Cde Tongai Mnangagwa has urged young girls to report child abuse and early marriages.

This comes after reports that the number of new HIV infections amongst young women and adolescents has gone up. Speaking at a “Her Voice” workshop organised by Youth Engage in partnership with UNAIDS in Harare this week, Cde Mnangagwa encouraged young girls to report such matters early for police to account for perpetrators.

“We are working with Youth Engage to meet young girls and hear their needs while also encouraging them to protect themselves against child abuse, HIV and early child marriages. We have seen that these young girls need different platforms to be taught on these issues,” he said.

UNAIDS country director Ms Sophia Mukasa Monico said the number of new infections amongst girls had gone up.

“These days you cannot talk about HIV without talking about Covid-19 and because of that we need to increase the knowledge about HIV among adolescent girls and young women,” she said.

Youth Engage programmes officer Ms Clara Chinoruma said they were trying to create space for adolescent girls to deliberate on issues taking place in their communities.