A call has been made for more education and advocacy on laws surrounding child marriages by civil society and human rights organisations. Zhombe residents, speaking during an online conversation about child marriages pointed out that more needs to be done to educate the rural communities about child marriage.

Cecil Marange, one of the participants said that it appeared as if currently there has been a lot of talk about child marriage because of Anna Machaya, a 14 year old girl who died whilst giving birth at a shrine in Marange. He pointed out that organisations seemed to relax when there is no case of child marriage that makes headlines and logs the limelight and only start making noise when something catches the attention of the media.

“In the 90’s there were more intensified campaigns but now it depends if a case gets media attention then organisations start making noise about it. The truth is some communities do not have this information on the laws protecting the girl child.

Some communities and religious organisations are so deeply entrenched in their beliefs that take advantage of the girl child that they need a complete paradigm shift to accept that what they do is wrong. This cannot happen overnight hence the need to continually engage them, every time,” he said.

During the meeting a number of people questioned how the Zimbabwe constitution says that anyone above the age of 18 can get married yet the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act says a girl can consent to sex at age sixteen. However, Advocate Francis Mapurisa explained that people should not confuse the issue of marriage and that of consent. “Those are two separate issues, at 8 they are considering that a person would be an adult and mature enough to make adult decisions and deal with married life. At 16 they are still minors they cannot marry. Unfortunately some do not make the decision to indulge in sex by themselves as they are forced into such situations, it is happening and our children are having to deal with the consequences,” he said.

Child marriage continues to be highly prevalent in Africa with almost 40% of girls getting married off before they are 18 years old. These “marriages” institute exploitation leaving the girl child with very little option in the matter than to be tied to an oppressive setting. Poverty, greed and attachments to culture are the identified root causes in such settings. Young girls who are forced into marriage are at a risk of psychological and physical abuse, an incomplete education, ill health, to name a few.

Mertha Mo Nyamande a Clinical Psychologist said that communities that adopt these practices tend to charge the women with more oppressive roles in the homes that they have very little time to attend to the emotional needs of their own children, thereby, lasting and ongoing damage is caused in both the boys’ and girls’ self-esteem due to unmet emotional needs.

“For these girls, there is no knowledge of play with mates, a carefree attitude and happiness. All they know is fear, depression and anxiety. The epitome of their livelihoods may be limited to homemaking and procreation,” said Mertha Mo Nyamande.

A young girl’s body is in most cases not physically developed enough to give birth. This physical trauma alone is enough to cause lasting mental distress. In addition to this, the imbalance of power between the girl and her often much older husband means she cannot negotiate certain issues like contraception, finances, in her favour. Separate studies done by UNICEF in 2005 and International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) confirm that beatings are a common occurrence for child brides. Meaning that child brides are subjected to continual abuse from the moment they are forcibly married off until they organisations and responsible authorities find a way to end the scourge.

A recommendation was made for child protective agencies to be easily accessible to all and regular workshops in areas where such culture is promoted so that the long-dominant beliefs are slowly but surely done away with. This in turn might also make the affected parties more willing to come forth and report such cases.