mbulelo smpofu
Patrick Chitumba, patrick.chitumba@chronicle.co.zw
When she was just 14 years old, Natalie Sibanda found herself pregnant and married to a much older man.
Natalie said getting married at such a tender age back in 2018 was no walk in the park as she faced a lot of hurdles.
Now 19 years old, and still married, the mother of one was among scores of villagers at Manjolo Business Centre in Binga District, Matabeleland North Province recently, waiting for food aid.
Together with other villagers from five wards namely Sinamatelele Ward 8, Manjolo Ward 7, Siansundu Ward 9, Saba Ward 13 and Siachilaba Ward 10, Natalie and her family are going through a very rough patch.
Study findings illuminate that food insecurity, among other factors of deprivation, increase girls’ risk of child marriage with child marriage rates in Zimbabwe having slightly worsened over the last 25 years.
Food insecurity factors strongly influence parents’ decisions to force or encourage their daughters to get married.
Natalie was part of over 400 villagers who were getting their November and December mealie-meal allocation at Manjolo Business Centre.
She waited patiently for her name to be called out before receiving about 40kg of maize meal, courtesy of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society and its partners.
Natalie is one of many girls who were forced into marriage due to hunger.
“I was 14 years old when I found myself involved with this old man because he could give me food. Things were tight at home and in the name of food, I became pregnant,” narrated Natalie.
She said her parents found an excuse to chase her away from home and her hopes of sitting for her O-level examinations were shattered.
“I stayed with my stepmother who was not really very supportive of me. I won’t blame her for my actions which led me to falling pregnant at such a tender age. But all I know is that I got involved with my husband because of hunger at home,” she said.
Natalie said after moving in with her husband, she realised that marriage was no walk in the park.
“I realised that my husband couldn’t really support me so I ended up doing menial jobs and suffered a miscarriage. Unfortunately I couldn’t go back home until today,” she said.
After a series of miscarriages, Natalie now has a baby boy, Tinashe, who is our months old.
She said she was grateful for the food aid received from ZRCS which will last her about two months.
In Centermita Village, Bettina Munkuli (16) said she dropped out of school and got married after falling pregnant following a relationship with a man who was buying her food.
Bettina, who is now a mother of two, said many girls in Binga were getting married due to hunger.
“I was 15 years old and stayed with my paternal grandmother. She could not afford sending me to school and there was hunger at home. So I got involved with a guy who would buy us food. Next thing I was pregnant and I moved in with him,” she said.
Chatyolola 2 Ward 7 Village Head, Mr Thomas Mudenda said hunger was driving young and vulnerable girls into early marriages.
“Because of climate change, there are no rains meaning no food for villagers. At the end of the day, many young girls are forced into early marriages,” he said.
Selimi 1 Ward 7 Village Head Mr Jimmy Siagumpa concurred with Mr Mudenda saying child marriages were common in his village due to hunger.
“We have child marriage problems here because of hunger but we’re grateful for interventions from organisations such as Red Cross that are giving us food. Before this intervention, villagers were eating porridge in the morning then isitshwala in the evening,” he said.
Elder Japhet Muleya from Assemblies of God Church in Centermita Village in Manjolo Ward said the lasting solution to ending child marriages was availing food and funding income generating projects.
“We had a challenge where a minor was married off. Community members alerted authorities which promised to provide food for the girl if she went back home.
“Unfortunately they didn’t offer any assistance and the girl went back to that marriage. The community now just watches as young girls get into marriages because there is no lasting solution being provided to help them,” he said.
According to ZRCS secretary Mr Elias Hwenga, they have been working with the support of the Danish Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to develop an Early Action Protocol (EAP) project in Binga that started in October 2023 and ends this month.
“The project’s goal is to mitigate drought-induced food insecurity through implementation of early actions targeting 4 000 households and 20 000 beneficiaries in five wards in Binga district,” he said.
The project, Mr Hwenga said, is responding to the El-Nino induced drought. He said the drought has been a serious threat to agriculture-based livelihoods in Zimbabwe.
He said the El Nino phenomenon had resulted in crop loss and livestock deaths which are the major drivers of food insecurity thereby causing widespread malnutrition.
All these impacts are hampering the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals in Zimbabwe, notably SDG1 (no poverty), SDG2 (zero hunger) and SDG3 (good health and well-being).
“The project has several interventions such as distribution of drought tolerant seeds to 2 000 farmers and training of farmers on climate smart agricultural techniques, funding livestock deworming or dosing, dipping of cattle and food distributions targeting the five wards,” said Mr Hwenga.
