BY SHARON SIBINDI
THE Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) has expressed concern over the increasing number of girls who were dropping out of school, with 4% of such girls getting married by the age of 15.
LRF board member Promise Ncube made the revelations during the launch of a photo exhibition on Child Rights Convention hosted by the embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe in partnership with LRF and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Wednesday evening.
The event coincided with the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Ncube said there were still some challenges in the endeavour to protect children.
“According to Unicef 2017 statistics, 4% of girls get married by the age of 15 and 32% of girls get married before the age of 18. Also, according to the Inter Census Demographic Survey 2017, (ZimStats 2017) carried out by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency and the United Nations Population Fund, of the 70 608 children who have left school, 54% were females and 46% were males. That is a huge figure,” he said.
Ncube said children were not enjoying their rights such as access to birth registration.
“In 2017, Save the Children notes that out of 145 497 children who were screened for malnutrition, 60% of such children were found to be malnourished. These figures are likely to be higher now, given the current socio-economic context,” he said.
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The event was attended by the Swedish ambassador Åsa Pehrson and National Gallery in Bulawayo director Butholezwe Kgosi Nyathi, among other prominent people.
