Child marriage is one of the most widespread forms of violence and abuse perpetrated against young girls in Ward 15, Hurungwe West in Zimbabwe. In this remote rural area, over 42% of girls are married before the age of 18 years. Child marriages are further exacerbated by poverty, lack of education and harmful social norms and practices. Jacqueline Matanhura, 23 years old, lives in the distant village of Chagadama where she is the only unmarried young woman between the ages of 18 and 24.
Jacqueline Matanhura
Jacqueline was raised by her mother and grandmother having lost her father when she was very young. Her mother worked hard growing tobacco and raising livestock to pay for her daughter’s education and now Jacqueline has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Chinese. Other young girls and women in her community have at the most 7 years of education and most of the girls in her village were married off before they reached the age of 16 and the rest by the age of 18. However, it saddens her that after persevering and working extremely hard and having completed her degree she is failing to find a job and has had to return to the village. She considers that poverty and unemployment are the main drivers of child marriage.
Jacqueline expressed her delight at the opportunity offered by Envision to participate in advocacy training to empower other adolescents in the neighbourhood against child marriages and harmful religious and cultural practices. She uses her life as a role model to raise awareness and encourage other youths to fight against child marriage and harmful practices. She is extremely proud of herself and stated that she intends to marry after obtaining a job and establishing her life. During a policy dialogue with traditional leaders, one of the events to end child marriages, Jacqueline stated that the consequences of child marriage are serious, causing both physical and emotional trauma to the child. She implored traditional leaders to desist from encouraging, presiding over and participating in child marriages.
She also co-presented a live radio broadcast on ending child marriages on Platinum FM in Mashonaland West, where she pledged that she will never tire of educating adolescents to fight against child marriage and encouraged other young girls and women to focus on their education and personal development before getting married.
Figure 1 Jacqueline (centre) presenting the radio broadcast on ending child marriage
She is happy that the awareness raising she participated in has inspired youths and adults. She has seen positive results in the neighbourhood. One of her neighbours sought the return of their 15-year-old daughter who had eloped; she considers that her hard work on ending child marriages had a beneficial effect and she encouraged other youths in the country to take up the responsibility to end child marriage and harmful practices. Although Jacqueline has no formal job, she has undertaken a poultry project to generate income to assist her mother and grandmother to send her siblings to school. She is also conducting extra lessons for school children by helping them with mathematics and English whilst she is still job hunting. She indicated that one day she believes she will better the life of her family and village and she will continue advocating against child marriage and harmful practices.
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