Tragedy of child mothers

when I saw him come towards me whilst I talked to the guy who was proposing love to me,” she narrated of the fateful day when she was “caught red-handed” talking to a boy.
“My father was very possessive and he kicked me out of the house saying I should marry the boy. I was young and naïve and had no option but to marry the boy,” she said.
Chipo was 13 when she got married.
Teenagers clutching babies in their hands or morosely strapping them on their backs are a common, depressing features at clinics in Hwedza. Here are children, whose peers will be in school, who would have been thrust into the train of parenthood.
Chipo’s case is just a tip of the iceberg as most girls in this, and other parts, of the country find themselves in the same predicament.
Few girls are able to complete Ordinary Levels with most failing to go to secondary schools. While reasons for this vary, from lack of money to pay tuition fees for many of them to religious grounds, among others, one thing is clear: There is a general “acceptance” and a prevailing practice within the area amongst many parents to coerce their children into early marriages.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts  and Culture district office reveal that out of the 10 000 girls who enrolled in Form One in the Marange District of Manicaland in 2000, only about a third completed Form Four in 2003. While relevant data is not available of the reported cases, there is no ministry or organisation that has collected the current statistics on forced marriages — reported or  unreported. Chegutu West Junior Parliamentarian Brighton Dzvairo said young women continue to face this predicament and as the junior chamber they are educating young Zimbabweans on their rights and the need to protect them.
“Here in Chegutu and other parts of the country, there have been reported incidents and one particular one in 2011 which we as junior parliamentarians got involved to assist and lobby for children’s rights to be protected.
“We have done many campaigns for youths to establish themselves and to be heard, honestly the response has been satisfying to date,” he said.
Financial constraints hold back some of the plans and initiatives that the junior parliament might seek to fulfill he added.
“If Government and local stakeholders could assist with funds for we would also contribute to curtail these ugly situations from occurring if they arise”, he said.
There are dangers with early marriages, apart from robbing girls of their prime years, and future. A research by Harare-based non-governmental organisation, Women and Law Southern Africa (WLSA), has shown that young girls in early marriages are likely to suffer birth complications, some of which can be fatal.
The WLSA study also revealed that those girls are prone to cervical cancer, suffer psychological trauma and encounter a host of problems, such as failing to deal with the social pressures that come with being a wife in a polygamous marriage.
Culture, tradition and the law do not seem to help the cause of girls.
It can get that bad. In 2007, Girl Child Network rescued an 11-year-old girl who had been married off to a 44-year-old man in Buhera.
The man was successfully prosecuted and sentenced to six months in jail.
However, shortly after the sentence was suspended, the girl had to live in a safe house because the husband continuously persisted that she was still his wife.
The Zimbabwe’s Marriage Act Chapter 5:11 states that men may marry at the minimum age of 18 while women marry at the age of 16.
Under the enacted Domestic Violence Act it is an offence to marry young girls under the age of 16 but it is difficult to stop these marriages as many people never mind about the marriages. Even some parents are comfortable with these marriages. 
It is tragic that these girls get into that situation when the health delivery is taking a knock. For example, Mashonaland Central provincial medical director Dr Clemence Tshuma recently said strengthening district health care delivery system was on the right track but women access to health facilities remained a challenge.
He said this during the official opening of Chitse Clinic in Mt Darwin recently.
“The district’s progress in terms of the Millennium Development Goals has been positive and it’s a welcome development.
“The opening of this clinic has come at a convenient time when women’s health matters should be at the fore front.
“Many cases of mothers losing their lives while waiting for transport to go to the nearest medical centre have seen maternal deaths increasing over the past four year.” he said.
He said that mothers need to have access financially, geographically and psychologically and there is a lot to be done in terms of addressing this. There could be some light at the end of the tunnel though.
Apostolic churches, once widely blamed for promoting child marriages, are on the mend and are combating the vice.
It has been common to see a grown-up man with two wives taking a third one who is just 13 and getting away with it.
However, the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe — Africa (UDA-CIZA), a coalition of more than 180 apostolic sects in Zimbabwe, is on record as admonishing apostolic sect leaders of the dangers of early marriages.
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