Fresh voice for girl child rights

Government has made some important strides in its efforts to bring gender equity by the passing of important legislature such as the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, which has put in place tenets that promote the rights of women and the girl child.

The movement to promote the rights of women and the girl child in Malawi received a big boost with the recent visit of Graca Machel, a renowned advocate for women and girl child rights.

Machel, who is also a patron of the Graca Machel Trust, held several meetings with civil society, communities, government and the United Nations family in Malawi, with special focus on the acceleration of efforts to end child marriage, improve education of the girl child and to improve nutrition outcomes in the country.

Speaking during the meeting with UN Heads of Missions in Lilongwe, Machel reiterated the need for equity in the education system and also called for the improvement of sanitary infrastructure to encourage girls to stay in school.

“Education is the key for developing this country,” she said, adding: “We should make sure that there are enough resources, not only financial but also human resources, even if it means to retrain the teachers, to ensure that the country offers quality education.”

The UN country team also took advantage of the meeting to brief Machel on the situation of children in Malawi. Making a presentation on behalf of the UN country team, Mahimbo Mdoe, United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) country representative, said the country is still struggling with malnutrition with severe consequences for children.

“Almost 42.4 percent of children under the age of five are affected by stunting, which is being too short for one’s age because of inadequate nutrition,” he said, adding that this has also had an impact on the high incidence of school dropout rates.

“Stunted children are more likely to drop out of school, achieving 1.5 years in education,” said Mahimbo who explained that ‘of all school repetitions, 18 percent are associated with stunting.’

One of the prominent issues that also came out in the discussions was the high dropout rate of girls from school to get married. According to the presentation made by Unicef, in 2010, 50 percent of women aged 20-24 years were married before the age of 18.

“Malawi is ranked is the eighth country with the highest rate of child marriage. One out of two girls is married before reaching 18 years,” said Mahimbo who further called for the enforcement and implementation of the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act to check the practice.

During the visit, Machel’s team also met with Malawi’s Civil Society Nutrition Alliance (Csona) to map out the best ways to tackle nutrition related issues. Csona is an alliance of international and grassroots organisations that plays a significant role in supporting the promotion and implementation of nutrition interventions in Malawi.

Machel explained during the Csona meeting that ‘nutrition is not just a health issue, but a development priority, since it has an impact on numerous other aspects of life’. Her sentiments are especially true with current statistics saying that almost 66 percent of the adult population in Malawi engaged in manual activities were stunted as children, representing an annual loss of MWK 16.5 billion (US$ 67 million) alone.

In light of the high school drop-out especially of girls, new-born mortality rate and widespread violence against children in Malawi, Machel also met with key people from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare.

She also had a meeting with Girls not Brides and the Girls Education Network, two civil society organisations with which Machel shares a passion to defend the rights of girls. The meeting sought to strategize on finding better ways to curb the continued increase in numbers of girls who are dropping out of school and getting married at a tender age.

In both meetings, Machel acknowledged the progress Malawi has made in terms of putting up legislation and policies that seek to promote the welfare of women and girls. However, she stressed the need for their enforcement and implementation especially at local level if any meaningful change was to be realised.

Machel also emphasised the need to prioritise implementation for better impact, and stressed the importance of community involvement, “Work on the ground only has roots when the community is involved and the roots are what makes the ground strong,” she said.

True to the spirit of community involvement, Machel visited Malunje community, in T/A Kalolo, about 30 kilometres from the capital Lilongwe. Despite the grim reality of high incidences of girls’ dropping out of school to get married, the women from the community put up a brave face and led Machel to dance and song on her arrival.

There was, however, a reality check when Machel met with girls who dropped out of school because of pregnancy, as well as with girls who had been withdrawn from child marriage who narrated their stories.

One of the girls who was brave to narrate her story to the gathering is Sophilet. She married when she was only 15 years old, but went back to school last year, when she was 17. And even though she has a three-year-old son now, she’s aspiring to finish her secondary school and pursue a career as an accountant.

Machel was clearly moved by Sophilet’s story and advised her never to give up.

Machel also addressed the Malunje community and encouraged collective responsibility to see to it that girls are protected and have an opportunity to pursue with their education.

“It’s not enough to talk to girls,” she said. “We also need to change men’s attitudes. All of us have a responsibility.”

Commenting on the importance of Machel’s visit, Unicef’s chief of child protection, Nankali Maksud, said her coming brings a fresh voice on what needs and is required to be done in Malawi.

“It’s good that we have the policies in place but having a visit from a high level person like Graca Machel is important to Malawi because it’s a new and external voice, which reminds us the needs of the vulnerable people within our community,” she said.

Machel has left the country but her presence will always be felt as the movement to empower women and the girl child is now even more determined to join forces for the fight to accelerate meaningful progress. n