‘Scale up efforts to end child marriages’

Youths from Kasungu have asked government to scale up efforts to end child marriages in the district.

Speaking on Wednesday during a meeting with Social Protection Cluster  of Parliament, Chikondi Chatchunda of Traditional Authority (T/A) Kaluluma said child marriages were on the rise in the district.

She asked government to increase the number of child protection workers.

“Kasungu District has 31 T/As, but there are only 13 child protection workers, which is not easy to travel from one area to the other,” said Chatchunda.

She asked authorities to terminate child marriages and encourage the children to go back to school.

In his remarks, Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs chairperson Savel Kafwafwa, who is also Dedza North legislator, said they realised that funds allocated to councils towards youth programmes were not sufficient.

“The money allocated is less than K10 million, which is not adequate to address challenges such as terminating child marriages and others,” he said.

Kafwafwa assured that government will provide enough resources to address challenges facing the youth.

The meeting was organised through a Child Protection and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Project called Kulimbikitsa Ufulu ndi Umoyo wa Achinyamata (Kuuwa) which Plan International Malawi in conjunction with Good Health Organisation and Nkhamenya Mission Hospital are running in the district.