‘Child not bride’ campaign launched

Writes Marlvin Ngiza

Young people have come out guns blazing against the apostolic sect, accusing them of perpetrating child marriages in Masvingo province through the unjustified spiritual claims and basis that men under these denominations were allegedly getting married to teenagers.

Speaking about the development, the ‘Child Not Bride’ Founding President, who is also the Midlands Province’s child minister of state for provincial affairs and devolution, Kundi Chimbuya, outlined that the campaign which was also vigorously running online was meant to mobilise young people across the country and speak with one voice against the violation of young girls.

“What pushed me to embark on this awareness campaign was the worrisome increase in child marriages. If we do not have these issues addressed, then where are we going as a nation? In this regard, I am targeting the age group of 13 to 19 years as we believe that if this group is involved, they will be able to advocate for their peers.

“So we are also running the awareness campaign through social media such as WhatsApp and Instagram under the banner ‘Child Not Bride’ with a view that we can reach many young people online. We are also working with the communities through poster sticking to continue encouraging them to disengage from such a practice,” said Chimbuya.

He revealed that the apostolic sect has so far been the leading perpetuating factor of child marriages across the country while saying that as a young people’s movement, they were going to accelerate advocating the government for punitive measures to be put in place for all predators and perpetrators.

“Indeed Masvingo Province has been taking a toll on child marriages. The main drivers of this are white garment apostolic churches which seem to encourage such unlawful practices. We are in the process of advocating to the government for such practices to be abolished. We are also not limited to areas but we are advocating for a child marriage-free Zimbabwe,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bishop Divas Chakwenya, who is the national chairperson for the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ), has agreed that the apostolic sect has been the major driver of child marriages while calling for collective efforts from all stakeholders to eradicate the scourge.

“Yes, the problem of child marriages exists in the apostolic sect and is sometimes caused by poverty. As ACCZ, we are saying let us work together as partners in any way to eradicate this social challenge. On our side, we have even embarked on extensive educational campaigns to shun this practice. We also embarked on training our members on some self-sustaining projects and we are also working with community leaders encouraging them to report any case of child abuse,” said Chakwenya.

The ‘Child Not Bride’ campaign came into full swing after its launch in April 2023 under the tagline “no to child marriages”.

In Zimbabwe, According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) released some time ago, 33.7% of girls aged under 18 are married. This is one in three girls under 18. In comparison, 2% of boys get married before reaching the age of 18 years.