GENET lobbies ending child marriages in Dowa

Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) is committed to ensuring that girls are rescued from child marriage in Dowa District in order for them to complete their education.

Speaking on the sidelines of two day Girl’s summer camp which was held at Dowa Secondary School on Monday, GENET Project Officer, Naomi Nkhonjera said that her organization is concerned with the increase of school dropouts among girls in the district due to child marriage.

“As an organization, we have noted that in the district many young girls are failing to complete their education due to child marriage, for this reason we are geared to fight practices that lead to child marriages amongst girls so that they should finish their education,” she explained.

Nkhonjera said that GENET has noted with a concern that young girls are being forced to child marriages in the district because of early pregnancies which comes due to lack of access to Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) information and services among youth especially girls.

The Project Officer pointed out that her organization is implementing a project dubbed ‘improving Girls’ Access to SRH Information & Services (IGASI)’ with support from Amplify Change to curb the challenge.

She said the project seeks to raise awareness and assist girls to understand issues of SRH and its management.

“Our project is aiming at raising awareness so that all girls and young women in Dowa should have access to SRH Services and Information so that they should avoid sexual transmitted diseases and early pregnancies.

“In addition we want to break the belief and taboo which hinders girls to access contraceptive services at the hospitals,” Nkhonjera said.

Traditional Authority (TA) Chakhaza commended GENET for its project support saying that through the project, they have managed to abolish harmful cultural practices including kusasa fumbi which were fostering early pregnancies that lead to child marriage.

He said the project is working with parents and guardians in order for them to allow their children to access SRH services such as contraceptive methods in hospitals as one way of averting early pregnancies.

The Project is being implemented in the areas of TAs Kayembe and Chakhaza in Dowa District and it is directly working with 10 Health Centres including, Chakhaza, Kayembe, Chizolowondo, Bowe, Madisi, Nambuma and Kasese.

Apart from working with Health Centres, GENET is building capacity among local leaders in the district to assist in dealing with issues of SRH and to address social and cultural norms that negatively affect girls.
Mana