Cultural practices affecting girls’ education

Nineteen-year-old Mwaiwawo Mfulusa of Lombe Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Masache in Chikhwawa is an ambassador for adolescents in the area.

She advocates for abstinence and the need for her peers to stay in school to avoid unplanned and early pregnancies that may result in complications such as Caesarian Section or obstetric fistula, among complications.

Coming from an area that promotes early marriage for girls mainly because of poverty, Mwaiwawo, through a project by the United Nations Joint Programme for Adolescent Girls (JPAG), is working on changing this mindset.

Having traveled a similar road of early pregnancy, Mwaiwawo and many other girls in the area have found hope in the project with another chance to return to school.

She has also attained peer education and life skills through several motivation discussions courtesy of the programme.

From the beginning, Mwaiwawo did not know the benefits of going to school.

“It was like wasting time since most of my peers were either married or had children,” she says.

Mwaiwawo adds that her discouragement were further worsened by taunts form her peers for being a virgin.

Fed up with the taunts, the 12-year-old decided to give love a chance by dating a boy in her village.

“We were in an admirable relationship and he promised to marry me. But things changed when I fell pregnant. He refused to take responsibility.

“My pregnancy came as no surprise to my community. Many women and my peers told me this showed I was a fully fledged woman. [But] my mother was not amused that I fell pregnant out of wedlock,” recalls Mwaiwawo, now 19.

She adds: “I’m aware that girls face lots of risks when giving birth. Even though I was very young, I delivered normally without complications but I believe this was by God’s grace.”

The young mother admits that her childishness led her to drop out of school and go with the crowd. She is grateful to JPAG, which is facilitated by the district youth office.

District youth officer Baldwin Mkumbadzala says JPAG came following a survey that revealed many cases of girl drop outs in T/A Masache due to long distances, early pregnancies and the cultural practice of marrying off young girls.

He urges traditional leaders and parents to help promote girls’ education rather than early marriage.

“Pregnancy is not the only risk. We should also be highlighting issues of contracting HIV and the risk of enduring gender based violence [GBV] due to early marriages,” he says.

Since 2011, he says, the programme has so far benefitted girls from the ages of 10 to 18.

Mkumbadzala adds that some have been equipped with vocational skills such as hair dressing, electronics, tailoring whereas others have returned to school.

Group Village Head (GVH) Lombe says the illiteracy of parents has greatly contributed to early marriages in the area.

“The culture has been that a girl is wealth in the sense that when she gets married, the husband will be assisting the family financially. There has been an improvement since the introduction of JPAG programme,” he says.

Director of planning and development (DPD) at Chikhwawa District Council, Kelvin Harawa says the council relies on traditional leaders to advance girls education.

“Even if it means punishing parents who marry off their girls, it would be okay so long as it advances girls’ education.

“It is better to educate a girl because she remembers to assist her parents once employed unlike boys who prioritise trivial things,” he says.

Harawa emphasizes that the solution to early marriages and pregnancy problems is within the communities and that programmes such as JPAG helps only partially.

Since 2010, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund    (Unicef) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation  (Unesco) have been executing a Joint UN programme in Malawi on adolescent girls aimed at advancing their rights.

UNFPA coordinates the programme delivery at the UN level whereas government, through various sectors at district level and a number of NGOs, have been implementing the programme in Chikhwawa and Mangochi.