Lilongwe - Beyond the Community Victims Support Unit's efforts of reducing gender based violence to adolescent girls in the community of Traditional Authority Masache in Chikhwawa, Malita Jani and Jennifer Mkonzi are the examples of girls that have benefited from the work of Masache Community Victims Support Unit by returning to school after getting married.
Malita Jani, 17 years, was in a relationship that was definitely leading to her dropping out of school and later getting married. "Everyone in this village knew I was in a relationship that would end up in marriage; however, the leaders of the CVSU came forth, talked to my parents and advised me to stop and concentrate on school", she said. She is now in form one at Phanda community Day Secondary School.
While Malita never dropped out of school, her friend, Jennifer Nkonzi, 20 years dropped out of school and was married for two years and three months. She has one male child named Oscar. She has gone back to school and is in form two at Phanda Community Day Secondary School. While she is at school, her mother takes care of the child. She recalls the problems she faced whilst in marriage. "My husband would leave me and go for other women yet he promised to be with me only. He would not come home for days and eventually, I said enough is enough and told my parents that I want abandon marriage and go back to school and they accepted, no one can tell me about marriage because I experienced it ", she said.
Both Malita and Jennifer have committed to complete their education. While Malita wants to be a nurse, Jennifer dreams of being an accountant in future.
David Chafa, Chairperson of Masache CVSU is proud of the achievement they made in bringing these two girls back to school. "Since our establishment in 2011, we have dealt with more than 92 cases and we offer protection services and refer some cases to police for further action. We have so many examples of success in our work and above all, we are proud of what we have do to many girls in this community in promoting enjoyment of their rights including Jennifer and Malita", he said.
He recalls that they have a duty to prevent early marriages in their community and they will not stop at nothing until they see more girls in school. "We are aware of our mandate to prevent gender based violence and bringing girls back to school is one way of preventing such instances, we want women and girls to be empowered and education for girls is one way of achieving this goal", said Chafa.
Through the Joint UN Programme on Adolescent Girls (JPAG) which is supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy since 2011, Community Victims support Units have been set up in the impact districts and have yielded significant results in bringing girls back to schools, preventing gender based violence and bringing perpetrators of GBV to book. Most communities have become safe and an enabling environment for girls to go back to school has been created.
