School-going children from Mchinji district have identified child marriage as one of the most pressing issues affecting girls in their communities, during the first session of the Mchinji District Children's Parliament held at Mchinji Teachers' Training College on 3 and 4 September.
The two-day forum brought together 165 learners representing Traditional Authorities Simphasi, Mkanda, Mavwere, Kapondo, Nyoka, Mduwa and Zulu, with each area designated a "constituency" for the purposes of the event.
The child parliamentarians debated five motions covering education challenges, clean water, health challenges, poor roads, and increased cases of child marriage.
Of these, the motion on child marriage drew particular attention, with several children linking early marriage directly to school dropout rates and wider health and poverty challenges in the district.
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"Girls are being forced to marry at 13, 14, 15 years old," one child parliamentarian said. "Their future is being sold for goats, money, and food. They are becoming wives and mothers before they finish primary school."
The children said early marriage worsened existing education challenges in Mchinji, where classrooms are overcrowded and learning materials are scarce, and argued that every girl married off represented a lost opportunity for the district to develop future teachers, nurses or leaders.
They also said teenage pregnancy placed additional strain on health facilities, with young mothers facing higher risks of complications and their children facing greater risk of malnutrition.
While full resolutions from the parliament are yet to be published, the child parliamentarians called for strict enforcement of laws against those who marry off children, community sensitisation by chiefs and religious leaders, support to keep girls in school through provision of sanitary pads, school feeding programmes and scholarships, and safe reporting mechanisms for children in villages.
Speaker of the Mchinji Children's Parliament, Deborah Ezekiel, said: "Marriage is for adults, not for children. Let us finish school first."
A boy MP representing TA Mkanda said children needed to speak out on the issue rather than wait for adults to act.
"We are the ones affected. If we don't speak now, who will speak for the girls who are already in marriages?" he said.
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Save the Children International's senior advocacy, campaigns, communications and media manager, John Chipeta, said his organisation and partners under the Joining Forces Alliance (JOFA) would analyse the resolutions and facilitate discussions to help government and other organisations take the issues forward.
He said the resolutions would be presented to the District Council, traditional leaders and relevant ministries to help inform policy and programming.
"Child parliament is the responsibility of every organisation, led by government, and NGOs have a role to support and complement," Mr Chipeta said, adding that some of the issues raised by children were directed at organisations such as his own, not government alone.
Principal Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Oliver Kumbambe, congratulated the 165 child parliamentarians, saying their participation demonstrated that children were citizens with rights, views and aspirations that needed to be heard.
He said the Children's Parliament provided a platform for children to learn about their rights and responsibilities, identify challenges and propose solutions.
"When we listen to children, we gain a better understanding of the realities they face. When children are given an opportunity to speak, we strengthen democracy. And when we act on what children tell us, we demonstrate that their voices truly matter," Mr Kumbambe said.
He urged the child parliamentarians to act as ambassadors in their communities against child marriage, violence, abuse, child labour and exploitation, and called on parents, guardians and traditional leaders to create safe spaces for children to speak and to continue efforts to end harmful practices.
