BY VARAIDZO MUDEWAIRI IN efforts to reduce child marriages, CARE Zimbabwe has come up with different initiatives to empower communities to start projects that ensure that young girls are well taken care of.
This comes as the country has been recording several cases of child marriages and other forms of abuse, which were mostly perpetrated during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Speaking during Care International in Zimbabwe’s 30th anniversary celebrations on Thursday, Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni said women and girls should be prioritised to overcome poverty.
“We should put women and girls at the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. It is my ministry’s role to support all initiatives that improve the lives of women and girls. But it is our experience that if we leave out the men and the boy child, they end up creating development imbalance,” Nyoni said.
“On our call for gender balance, the ministry calls upon all concerned to have a family approach to development in order to avoid creating future gender imbalances against men. Inclusive development calls upon all of humanity to participate as equals.”
Buhera resident Naomi Zuze, who was married at a tender age said: “My advice is that girl children must be married at the right age when they are mature enough and it’s important that they acquire education first.”
“I am one of the people who did not go far with education, but when CARE came teaching us that girls should not get married at a tender age, I was empowered.”
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