Chitani Community Sustainable Development Organization (CHICOSUDO) is almost halfway through their 6-month project, End Child Marriage Now!!! Protect Her Rights. Their goal is to prevent 500 early and forced marriages by the end of March 2021.
Since September, they have held an orientation meeting, conducted needs assessment surveys, and completed three awareness campaigns.
Orientation Meeting
The orientation meeting was held with traditional leaders, community-based organization (CBO) members, village development committee members, a child protection worker, and the headteacher of Sukayakwe Primary School. The adoption of bylaws set, but not yet verified, by the Mulanje district council and how to reinforce them in the wider community were discussed. Capacity building with the traditional leaders increased as they agreed to work together with CHICOSUDO in the fight against child marriage.
Traditional Leaders attending the Orientation Meeting
“Traditional leaders are the key in the fight because they are gatekeepers and custodians of culture. Therefore, putting them in front is the key to promoting bylaws which were formed by different stakeholders in the area. At the same time, they are also the key to addressing harmful cultural norms that promote gender-based violence and violence against women and girls.”
Mr. Bizwick Nakapa, Ntonya CBO Chair, speaking on the role they have in promoting bylaws to protect girls from early child marriage.
The Ntonya CBO strengthened their capacity building skills through greater knowledge of how to dissemintate information, taught by CHICOSUDO. According to Ntonya CBO Chair, Mr Bizwick Nakapa, “despite our efforts in promoting girls education in our respective villages, the [End Child Marriage Now!!! Protect Her Rights] campaign addressed the gaps, including capacity, financial and material, in support for the full implementation of the community bylaws. Although we were able to encourage parents to prioritize their girl child’s education, cases of child marriages were still happening. Now with the support available from CHICOSUDO and Rockflower, we are able to disseminate the bylaws so that more parents are able to know the consequences of child marriages”.
Needs Assessment Survey
A needs assessment survey was conducted using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews of 21 women and 11 men. The main aim of this was to assess the magnitude of early marriages in area, key drivers and how bylaws are used by both adolescence/girls and duty bearers. A total of 35 people were reached. Participants include: traditional leaders, head teachers, mothers groups representatives, CBO members, child protection workers, victim support unit, parents and guardians of girls 12 to 17 years old in and out of schools, and adolescent girls.
The survey found a high rate of childhood pregnancy and early marriages resulting in school dropout rates to increase. Almost 75% of parents interviewed confirmed child marriage is a prominent issue with negative impacts. These impacts include health implications. The Mulanje district has the highest HIV prevalance rate in Malawi at 21%. Cervical cancer rates are also high. In addition to health problems, 95% of respondents mentioned that girls who get married early are normally forced into poverty, experience abuse, lack an education, and more. 85% of parents interviewed expressed concern about girls moving back home with their children due to the marriage falling apart and their inability to find employment.
The key drivers of child marriage are cultural practices, economic pressures and lack of reproductive health education. There is a large gap around bylaws and their implementation by all parties that participated.
Focus Groups conducted for the Need Assessment Survey
Awareness Campaigns
Three awareness campaigns have been held. Read in-depth about one of the awareness campaigns held in October here.
Challenges and Recommendations
The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted gathering sizes causing CHICOSUDO to reorganize their efforts, but they continue to work diligently to reach their objectives. CBOs and traditional leaders had low capacity building skils before their trainings during and after the orientation meeting. Cultural norms continue to be challenging.
The project will continue by holding more awareness campaigns, in particular with CBOs and schools with constant access to adolescent children. Adolescent girls will be trained in peer education, reproductive health and rights to create opportunities to be change agents. The CBOs will be empowered to diseminate information regarding the advocacy focused community bylaws. Work with district leaders to formalize the bylaws. 5 CBO male members have been trained as protectors to counteract cultural norms.