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Wimbainashe Zhakata Mutare Correspondent
AT least 669 girls aged between 10 and 19 registered for antenatal care in Mutasa District between September 2017 and February 2018, The Herald has learnt. Antenatal care is the care would-be mothers get from health professionals during pregnancy.

Responding to the shocking statistics, Chief Mutasa said: “Our Constitution does not allow child marriages. Let us not demean our culture; we do not tolerate such behaviour.”

Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DMCCP) coordinator for Mutasa, Mrs Laurelle Mbaradza, said they were disturbed by child marriage statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

“We have children that we work with who are getting pregnant before finishing school and we have worked together to come up with a petition that we asked people in the community to sign. It was signed by 1 000 people in Mutasa district who agreed to support the cause,” she said.

“However, the economic empowerment that was being preached here today under the theme Transforming Women’s Lives through Economic Empowerment is also there to help these girls to work hard using their hands so that they can support themselves since they did not finish school.”

The petition was meant to push Government to expedite the alignment of the Marriage Act and the Customary Marriage Act.
It was generated by the Ministry of Health and Child Care in conjunction with DMCCP and was presented to people gathered for a belated Mutasa District International Woman’s Day in Hauna on Monday, by Start Awareness Support Action Faith (SASA).

Some of the statistics on the petition also indicated that girls between the ages of 10 to 14 were five times more likely to die from pregnancy complications and child birth while those aged between 15 and 19 are two times more at risk than those aged 20 to 24.

Also, girls who marry early often to older men have no power over their sexuality and therefore are at risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, read some of the information.

Representatives from the Ministry of Women, Youth Affairs, Gender and Community Development also attended the event to demonstrate their support to DMCPP and Ministry of Health and Child Care.