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Female chief comes into power and annuls child marriages – sending girls back to school

By Positive Thoughts
January 14th, 2021

Theresa Kachindamoto is many things. She’s a chief, a younger sister, and a mother.

She’s also a hero.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiqKdDejyo1/

The Malawian chief has overseen the annulment of thousands of child marriages in Malawi, and it’s done quite the job of putting her on the map.

27 years ago, Theresa’s day-to-day job was as a college secretary in Zomba District. Clearly, working with kids is a notable skill of hers. Though she never expected to be in charge of thousands of them.

That changed significantly in 2003, when the chiefs of Dedza district chose her as the next chief.

Now the chief of over 900,00 people, it was time to put her leading skills to the test. She’d watched over kids before, so surely this shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment, right?

Theresa took the position, though it’s not like she could say no. Once she was in charge, there was something that immediately needed to change. This change was a long overdue one too.

In Malawi alone, the number of young girls who are married before they turn 18 is about 46%.

According to UNICEF, it isn’t uncommon for parents to give up their young daughters for marriage in exchange for financial support. This is how many girls find themselves pressured into marriage when they’re as young as 14.

Though she couldn’t change everything, any change was better than no change. Theresa had the power to change the lives of nearly a million people residing in Malawi, and she knew what she was going to do.

Young girls deserve to be in school and enjoying their youth, and she was going to make sure of that.

First order of business : Give the word for the 50 sub chiefs to abolish child marriage in the district, and give existing marriages the annulment treatment.

In case you’re wondering what she did to the chiefs who didn’t cooperate, the answer is that she fired them. As you should.

Thanks to her, countless young girls can rest easy and go to school like they should. Now they can be treated like girls, and not wives. Those chiefs she fired got reinstated when she found reassurance that they’d cooperate. Talk about power moves, huh?

“I told them: ‘Whether you like it or not, I want these marriages to be terminated.’”

Her work terminating child marriages has earned her the clever title of “The Terminator”. Seems like people are catching on too. In 2015, Malawi passed a law forbidding anyone under 18 from being married.

There is one loophole to this though, being that minors can marry with the consent of their parents.

That’s not all either. Kachindamoto also does her best to pay for the tuition for many of the children she helps save. If she can’t do it herself, she finds sponsors to do the work.

https://www.facebook.com/GirlUpAfrica/posts/1470203766497272

As of now, the number of child marriages she’s helped to terminate is 3,500. That number should only increase with her in charge, here’s hoping. Theresa’s methods themselves are impressive. She has undercover “Fathers” and “mothers” around the districts, ready to report to her if they catch any parents pulling their daughters out of school.

Isn’t Theresa incredible? From school secretary to savior of thousands of young girls in less than a lifetime.

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Source: [Inews, UNICEF, Aljazeera]

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Positive Thoughts
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