Empower girls in Zimbabwe - steps for children

5 June 2023

Empowering girls in Zimbabwe

steps for children strengthening together with Stiftung Hilfe mit Plan and Plan International, especially girls, through measures that prevent child marriage, enable education and vocational prospects, awareness-raising and violence prevention, and support young women and families in making the best use of income-generating measures. Last year, this enabled 100 disadvantaged children to attend school by covering school fees, and training was provided for 65 teachers and 150 school leaders.

To empower girls in Zimbabwe, these measures are enormously important, because 34 % of girls are married before their 18th birthday, many of them becoming pregnant shortly afterwards.* The result is often dropping out of school, which in turn significantly reduces the chance of a career path. In the project regions of Mutare and Mutasa in Manicland this problem is obvious and was exacerbated above all by the pandemic – due to many school closures, high rates of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence were 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 raise awareness of the negative consequences of marrying too young and early pregnancies. This also includes explanations in parent groups about positive parenting methods.

To teacher training include first aid courses, highlighting existing laws against child marriage and developing a deeper understanding of them, as well as the fact that school leaders are obliged to support pregnant girls in continuing their schooling at another school if they do not wish to continue at their current school.

EMPOWER GIRLS

Empowering girls in Zimbabwe – AGAINST child marriage and school dropout.