Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Mr. Limbani Kumanga
– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“A scared dog barks to pretend to its master but a brave dog bites to protect him”
– An African Proverb
Teenage Pregnancy & Early Marriage: Since arriving in my community, my efforts to get a firsthand appreciation of the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and early marriages had proven futile for technical reasons. I mean, I had heard of the existence of these problems but without seeing girls that are affected by these two vices, what I had been hearing remained mere speculation. I needed to see and, if possible, interact with girls that are caught up in this predicament. But as a young bachelor working in a culturally conservative society, simply going into the community and start asking for young ladies with kids would have raised eyebrows. An alternative was to observe such girls during community meetings but, unfortunately, millennials hardly attend community meetings here. I had to be creative.
Unmoved, I had to devised a smart strategy that would not only allow me to circumvent these restrictions but also provide fun for my subjects. After much contemplation and looking at the minimal resources I had, I organized a netball match for females in my community. Generally, women in my community (and many rural areas in Malawi) lack recreation activities, so I was convinced that a netball match would attract scores of females from their cocoons. Maybe this lack of recreation activities partly explains why most girls are prone to teenage pregnancies in the first place. To incentivize as many females as possible to grace the occasion, I pledged a whooping K2000.00 (approximately, $2.80) as a sponsorship package for this match and, as expected, a large number of female residents came to play and cheer. Goal achieved.
Aftermath: Upon consulting several senior residents, it turns out that there is a heinous circle that perpetuates this problem in the community. Teenage pregnancies and eventual early marriages are a common occurrence here and people have simply allowed this ugly phenomena to be ingrained on their minds as a normality of life. A girl child and even boys failing to progress with education does not warrant serious contemplation and agency here. But as a man who is chronically allergic to mediocrity, I will not tolerate this mentality. Obviously, this problem cannot be reverted overnight, but I won’t standby and let this aspect lead me to idleness. Because you what? Knowing is not enough, but applying. At the moment, the plan is to organize a team of residents that are interested to join my efforts to fight for this noble cause. I don’t know what we will achieve in the remaining 5 months that I will be here, but one thing I am sure about is that we will do something. Something that will be ongoing even after I leave. Watch this space.