By Emmanuel Munyati
Early girl child marriages in the Nyamuzizi community have resulted in 17 out of 38 registered girls dropping out of school before writing their final Ordinary Level exams at Chakara Secondary School.
Some social constructors concur with the idea that ‘the most effective weapon against the oppressor is in the mind of the oppressed’ but this phenomenon seems to be void in the Hoyuyu Ward of Mutoko where efforts to empower young girls have been reduced to a mere pipe dream by the guardians themselves.
Due to interrelated factors like poverty and ignorance to education, parents of girls at Chikara Secondary are sacrificing their innocent and future oriented girl-children for a mere lobola.
Out of 38 of the girls who registered to sit for their 2014 ‘O’ level exams, only 21 managed to finally ink their exam sheets. 9 of the drop-outs are said to have been impregnated by school leavers who refused to take responsibility of the innocent souls they spoil.
Every year, over 40% of girls who register for their ‘O’ level exams at Chikara Secondary school fail to write their exams due to early child marriages and teenage pregnancies. This could just be a tip of the iceberg; the problem seems to be plummeting to its roots in most marginalised areas of the district.
Chikara School is located at a 45km peg south of Mutoko Centre in the Nyamuzizi resettlement area. The area used to be a farming community for white settlers during the post Chimurenga era. The villagers are of mixed races and ethnic beliefs some of whom migrated from Malawi and Mozambique to work in farms. This heterogeneous setup created a one-man-for-himself lifestyle because there is no common identity. Farm settlers are widely believed to have a complacent attitude towards educating their children.
‘In Mutoko, marginalised areas like Nyamuzizi are regarded as hunting grounds for house maids by high to middle income families from nearby towns and cities. Housemaids are required to do baby minding and carry everyday household chores whilst getting around 50 to 80 dollars a month thereby rendering them cheap labourers.’ Said Mercy Mupande a development worker form Plan International
On the 29th of October the School Development Committee convened a crisis meeting with the school staff in order to find amicable ways to ameliorate the problem.
The ward councillor for Nyamuzizi ward Mrs Jane Masendeke decried that the parents of school children are not doing enough to curb the problem of early child marriage and sexual abuse that have contributed to the disgraceful school dropouts….she further lamented that there are male school leavers that are wreaking havoc in innocent young school going girls. The school leavers are said to be shepherding young girls during going back home time where they bear the burden of walking close to a 10km distance everyday.
Young girls are the most vulnerable people in the society. Especially in Nyamuzizi and other surrounding resettlement areas highly characterised by poor infrastructure and unavailability of youth friendly services young women and girls usually fall prey to men who take advantage of the profound absence of the police in the area.