Empowering girls in Zimbabwe
steps for children works together with the Stiftung Hilfe mit Plan and Plan International to empower girls in particular through measures that prevent child marriage, enable education and career prospects, provide awareness-raising and violence prevention, and support young women and families in properly using income-generating measures. As a result, last year school attendance was made possible for 100 disadvantaged children by covering school fees, and training was provided for 65 teachers and 150 school administrators.
To empower girls in Zimbabwe, these measures are enormously important, as 34 % of girls are married before their 18th birthday, many of them become pregnant shortly thereafter.* The consequence is often dropping out of school, which in turn significantly reduces their chances of a career. In the project region Mutare and Mutasa in Manicland Province this problem is obvious and was exacerbated especially by the pandemic – many school closures led to high rates of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence being recorded.
This now requires a general dismantling of the social norms and traditions recognised locally and the enforcement of child protection structures. The reasons are varied, but above all financial hardship influences the decision to enter a child marriage.
Through awareness-raising campaigns for parents, we try to create awareness of the negative consequences of marrying and becoming pregnant too early. This also includes explaining positive parenting methods in parent groups.
Teacher training includes first-aid courses, highlighting existing laws against child marriage and developing a deeper understanding of them, as well as the fact that school administrators are required to support pregnant girls in continuing their education at another school if they do not wish to continue studying at their previous school.
Empowering girls in Zimbabwe – AGAINST child marriage and dropping out of school.
We take measures intended to prevent child marriage…
…through teacher training and awareness-raising campaigns for parents.
An awareness-raising campaign costs 440 €
Training for several teachers costs 5.122 €
*UNICEF-Report 2021
