One of the country’s child rights activists has stressed the need to go beyond sensitizing and withdrawing children from marriages if the country is to win the battle against the vice.
The sentiments have been made after a revelation by Patricia Kaliati, Minister of gender, community development and social welfare that forty percent of children withdrawn from child marriages last year have gone back to the unions.
At the moment the Malawi’s child marriage prevalence rate is at 42 percent which is one of the highest in the SADC region.
In an interview with MIJ Online, Fred Nyondo, a child rights activist said it is unfortunate that the country continues to register an increase in child marriages despite efforts by government and the civil society to end the vice.
Nyondo said it’s high time that stakeholders address real issues of financial and psychological support to children withdrawn from marriages.