adminSukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
THE Regional Psycho Social Support Initiative (REPSSI) organisation has launched a Unicef nationwide campaign which will see 800 police officers from eight districts receiving training on how to handle issues about child marriages.
The organisation’s regional facilitator responsible for training, Mr Tony Munyani said teachers from various schools will also receive guidance and counselling training so they are empowered on how to manage cases of child marriages.
He said the programme was being funded by Unicef. He said training had started in Bulilima, Gwanda, Beitbridge, Umzingwane, Chipinge, Makoni, Centenary and Muzarabani districts.
“We launched a campaign against child marriages on the 4th of October. We have selected eight districts as the pilot districts where we are conducting training.
“Our next step will be training 800 police officers on how to handle cases of child marriages so that we get their support on this initiative. We will also train traditional leaders as they also have a crucial role to play in the fight against child marriages,” he said.
Mr Munyani said the ongoing training was for youths, community leaders and heads of Government departments to empower them on how to deal with issues of child marriages.
He said the organisation was trying to identify causes of child marriages, worst affected areas, and how they can be dealt with.
He said a meeting had been scheduled for October 24 in Harare where teams that had been deployed to the eight districts were going to give feedback on their findings.
“We will be meeting with our partner Unicef on 24 October to come up with a way forward on how we can roll out our intervention methods,” he said.
Mr Munyani said the fight against child marriages needed cooperation from various stakeholders hence the need to educate them on the subject.
He said his organisation had realised that there are high cases of child marriages mostly in rural areas but some went unreported. Mr Munyani said a number of campaigns that were being conducted by organisations did not incorporate the fight against child marriages.
“A number of organisations are dealing with HIV/Aids issues and sexual reproductive health while ignoring child marriages. There are some loopholes when it comes to how the law deals with these cases.
“Therefore we want to bring the stakeholders together so that the victims, perpetrators, law enforcers and the entire community have a shift of mindset that can help eradicate these cases,” he said.
REPSSI conducted a two day anti child marriages workshop on Monday and Tuesday for stakeholders from Bulilima.
He said the organisation’s mandate was to provide psycho social support. — @DubeMatutu.
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