Human Rights

Zambia: Why child marriages should be discouraged

Times of Zambia (Zambia), by Doreen Nawa

At 13, Nchimunya has already experienced the pain of labour in child-bearing, although she never saw the intended results as she had delivered a still-born baby.A year ago, this girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair, was married to a 35-year-old man in her village in Namwala District of Southern Province. She was then just 12 years old, with a dream of becoming a teacher one day.

The marriage was fully consummated, and Nchimunya was given her five-year-old younger sister to keep. The new wife was just in grade seven when her guardians decided to marry her off to a wealthy man, three times her age.
At the end of her first pregnancy, Nchimunya’s anatomy proved not ready for the task of delivering a baby. After an unbearable three-day labour, the foetus was ‘cut’ out of her, still-born.
The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula- a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina, bladder and rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour. This condition mostly affects child victims of under-age marriages.
The ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimate that there could be well over 500 victims of obstetric fistula in Zambia at the moment, though a comprehensive study on the disease is yet to be conducted.
In the few months that followed, Nchimunya continuously discharged urine as the condition could not enable her control its flow. This forced many people to shun her. She was ostracised by her husband and his family because of her failure to give birth to a live baby. She was then forced to seclude herself away from the prying eyes and laughter of her former school mates.
In many districts and provinces of Zambia, what happened to Nchimunya is just one of the numerous events that sometimes go unnoticed. Even in cases where one reports to the police, it would be rare that the culprits would be arrested and imprisoned.
“Here, we only talk about such kind of things when sex happens outside marriage. But as the case is, such things can happen to anyone and the age does not matter. “Besides, a girl matures faster than a boy and so, questions of her not being unfit should not arise at all,” said one of Nchimunya’s relatives who did not want to be named.
But if looked at from the biological or physiological point of view, it is clear that at nine, 10, and even 11 or 12 years old, a girl simply is not ready for sex and child-bearing. But authorities are still struggling to make most communities understand and appreciate such a fact in the midst of high levels of poverty and illiteracy.
Nchimunya’s case is not an exception at all in this context. The problem affects all the villages in Zambia.
Cases of early marriages are rife not only in Southern Province. Recently, it was reported that more than 400 school girls in Mumbwa District dropped out of school after either getting pregnant or being married off and about 200 others left on account of economic reasons in the last two years.
According to a recent survey by the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) about 461 girls either got pregnant or went into early marriages and 206 dropped out of school due to lack of resources. CCF national director, Victor Koyi, revealed that 443 boys dropped out of school during the same period in the 28 schools, which were on the CCF catchment area.
Mr Koyi, who is also president of the Zambia National Education Coalition, an umbrella of civic organisations involved in education, was speaking in Mumbwa recently during the hand-over of the rehabilitated Butinti Basic School to the ministry of Education.
He noted that a lot of girls were dropping out of school on account of teen marriages and pregnancies and that the situation could be reversed if all stakeholders such as traditional leaders, parents and teachers worked together to stop the vice.
According to the UNFPA, at least a third of girls in rural areas are married off by the age of 15, and 75 per cent before the age of 18 in Africa as a whole. Despite international agreements and national laws, marriages of girls under 18 years of age are common worldwide and affect millions.
UNFPA wants the 18 years stipulation as minimum for marriage to be fully enforced to give girls no longer in school enough time for their bodies to develop and allow them to reach adulthood. It would also help curb Zambia’s runaway demographic growth by reducing a girls’ reproductive lifespan.
Nchimunya’s story does at least have a somewhat happy ending. She underwent two operations for the fistula and spent three months at Zimba Hospital, and is ready to go back to school. Nchimunya’s husband abandoned her. Her uncle, a peasant farmer, insists that even if he were still around, she would not be going back to him.
“No more husband,” the uncle insisted. “I was ignorant before but now I know what we did was very wrong.”

Health

Environment

Substituting charcoal key to positive climate change (Zambia Daily Mail)

By DOREEN NAWA

ZAMBIA Environmental and Gender Organisation (ZENGO) says substituting charcoal for twigs, saw dust and cow dung has positive climate change and developmental benefits.
And ZENGO says women are major stakeholders in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 7 of ensuring environmental sustainability.
ZENGO founder and President Elizabeth Musonda said if the use of charcoal is not regulated, the fight against climate change will not be won.
Ms Musonda said women should play a pivotal role in promoting initiatives that seek to address the MDG number 7.
She said the use of twigs, saw dust and cow dung is a good initiative towards regulating charcoal business and in turn conserving the forests.
Ms Musonda said this initiative must be supported by everyone, including government, in order to stop the depletion of forests.
“The MDG number 7 needs everyone’s support if we are to succeed. The main solution lies on how we regulate our forests. I think we need to gradually promote and introduce the use of the twigs, cow dung and saw dust into every home.
This will gradually cut off the charcoal production whose adverse impact on the environment is terrifying,” she said.
Ms Musonda said her organisation wants as many women as possible to switch to the alternatives and this is possible through the brazier specifically designed for the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust.
‘To promote this switch via community education and policy change, we need Government on board. I think Government should do their part and ban the use of the usual braziers and instead promote the new one called Pulumusa,” she said.
Pulumusa meaning Saviour, is designed to use twigs, cow dung and sawdust as compared to the ordinary brazier that uses large amounts of charcoal.
Ms Musonda said she has been to all provinces promoting the use of the new brazier and women are keen to switch to the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust.
She said there is need for all stakeholders especially that environment affects everyone, to encourage the government to help women make the switch.
However, costs, availability, and fear of switching are a big concern.
“We want to move this campaign to schools so that children can teach their parents. So far we have reached pilot provinces like eastern where the response is good.
Teaching our women on the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust using Pulumusa needs government support through policy change,” she said.
Zambia continues to experience deforestation every year. Worldwide deforestation and forest degradation account for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse emissions.
If the planet’s temperature is going to be stabilised within 2 degree Celsius limit, one of the major solutions lies in conserving the forests.