Early marriages not a solution to poverty

indictment of the parents, civic society and authorities.
The proximity of the settlement to Harare, which is the seat of Government, and many organisations created to champion the cause of children, especially the girl child shows that there are many people who are sleeping on the job.
It goes just beyond the illegality of the unions to the core of our society as we are revealed as people who can turn a blind eye to rampant child abuse.
With a sizeable number of women in powerful political, economic and civic positions how can the girl child still remain so poorly defended?
If the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture is doing its job it should surely be aware of the high drop out rates among the girls in the area and should have raised a red flag so that other stakeholders could be called in to solve the underlying problems.
And with so many civic organisations purporting to be fighting for human rights, children’s rights and some specifically the girl child’s rights it is puzzling to see how such a tragedy can unfold in the capital city’s backyard.
Are there no churches operating in the community that could also play a role in protecting the children?
Are things really so bleak in this place that beyond marriage the girls there have nothing else to look forward to in life?
Where will these girls, married off so young – most probably to equally illiterate men – in turn learn about family planning and the value of education for their own offspring?
Do they even know about HIV and Aids and the dangers of conception to their undeveloped bodies?
And does anyone care of the maternal and infant mortality rates which are likely to be unacceptably high as a result of the foregoing?
It is obvious that the society at Somerby accepts child marriages as perfectly ordinary to the extent that even the affected girls themselves do not feel abused.
To them getting married at the age of 15 is normal as they see their peers and siblings doing it all the time with the blessings of the family and the community at large.
But for early marriages to be touted as a solution to poverty is ridiculous.
The girls are marrying into the same community that they are living in, meaning that their marriages are not a social or economic uplift but just transference of the same problems to the new generation.
It is just sheer greed and irresponsibility on the part of the parents to produce children that they are not prepared to fend for.
Parents should limit their families to numbers that they can look after.
Awareness campaigns and self-help projects are desperately needed in the area to ensure that the problem is addressed.
The fact that there are schools in the area means that there is a starting point and what is necessary now is to equip them with the requisite resources to produce educated and literate graduates with a vision for their future.