The Zimbabwe Youth Council {ZYC] has promised to protect girls from early marriages.
The ZYC sentiments came after a 14 year old girl of Marange apostolic church recently died giving birth at the church shrine.
ZYC said more than 650 million women globally were married before the age of 18. In Zimbabwe approximately 1 in 3 girls were married before the age of 18, the legal age.
Addressing Journalists in Harare today, Zimbabwe Youth Council {ZYC} Chairperson Ms Chiedza Juru said as a board which represents the youths they will strive by all dimensions to make sure that they prevent child marriages.
She added that they were going to advocate for programs that protect the girl child from early marriages whilst emphasizing that they were going to work in conjunction with the parliament of Zimbabwe through the Junior Parliament to put in place laws that protect the girl child.
“We will create more platforms for educating all citizens, especially children and those living in communities afflicted by child marriages on the rights of children expressed in our constitution and the convention on the rights of the child to ensure that we prevent child marriages from taking place. Through the Junior Parliamentarian program, we will work with the elected parliamentarians from the 2010 constituencies to educate children in their communities.
“We will lobby lawmakers to consider amending laws to ensure a minimum mandatory sentence for perpetrators of child abuse,” she said.
The Marange child who died from pregnancy is not the only one in the same situation as recently there were social media reports that a family in Zhombe attempted to marry off their 13 year old daughter to a 21 year old man.
The continuous surge in child marriages require everybody to stand up and work with the police in enforcing laws which ensures that all perpetrators are brought to book like what happened on the issue of the Marange girl.
The Zimbabwe Youth Council is an Institution dedicated to serve the young people of Zimbabwe through creating platforms for youth empowerment and participation.
