‘APPALLED AND DEEPLY SADDENED’

Latwell Nyangu

CHILDREN and women’s rights movement, Women Excel Trust, says there is a need for a collective fight against rising child marriages.

Women Excel Trust director, Rodney Mutombo, said this while reacting to the story of 15-year-old Nokutenda Hwaramba, who died while giving birth at a church shrine in Bikita, on Tuesday.

“While still in the spirit of commemorating the International Day of the Girl Child, the sad news of the passing away of Nokutenda has come to our attention.

“Her dreams and future were shattered while giving birth.

“We are appalled and deeply saddened by such horrendous incidents that keep being recorded in the country.

“Adolescent pregnancy remains a major contributor to maternal and child mortality,” said Mutombo.

Mutombo said complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 and 19 years around the world.

He said pregnant girls and adolescents also face other health risks and complications due to their immature bodies.

Babies born to younger mothers are also at greater risk.

“We continue to say ‘regai dzive shiri mazai haana muto’.

“We cannot continue losing the lives of innocent young girls in the name of religion and culture.

“Many dreams of young girls are being shattered in the name of religion and cultures which promote these disgusting social ills of early teen pregnancies and marriages.

“We call on our Government and other relevant stakeholders to invest in developing, elaborating, and implementing national strategies and action plans, including putting in place mechanisms and institutions for the enforcement, monitoring and reporting, along with financial and human resources, all aimed at ending child marriages.”

Mutombo called for the ratification, domestication, harmonisation, application and monitoring of international and regional instruments aimed at improving the welfare of children’s and women’s rights.

“Enact stiffer penalties now on perpetrators and those that promote child abuse to end child marriages as it is one of the core human development issues of the post 2015 Development Agenda as well as the African Union Agenda 2063 to be monitored with a specific indicator in the Agenda 2063 monitoring mechanisms.”