Child marriage prevalence varies widely depending on the region, with highest prevalence in rural areas, especially in Eastern province at 60%.1000 girls from Katete district will be retrieved from child marriages and empowered in education and SRHR skills. FHT aims to engage gatekeepers to become champions of ending child marriages. They'll actively engaged to develop laws and action plans that will be used to effectively retrieve the girls from child marriages and taken back to school.
Zambia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 42% of women 20-24 years married by the age of 18. 31% of Zambian girls are married before 18th birthday and 6% before 15th birthday. High poverty levels leads parents to marry off their girls for economic gain. The practice of child marriage in Katete district affects girls to attain their full potential in education as they are married off immediately after their first puberty.This practice leaves girls to be more vulnerable.
Family Health Trust wants significant change and reach out to 1000 girls in child marriages and create champions of change in communities . It will build capacities of young girls and parents by providing them with knowledge and skills on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, gender, family planning and entrepreneurship . We will use the Theory of Planned Behaviour with specific focus on addressing knowledge, attitude and skills of girls and create action plans with stakeholders to end child marriage.
Breaking the cycle of poverty among girls by empowering 1000 rural girls retrieved from child marriage with education. We will work closely with Ministry of Education and parents to ensure that girls retrieved from marriages stay in school and attain their education. Young girls will be linked to clubs and community health facility where they will be empowered with SRH information. Girls will become more assertive about the dangers of child marriage and empowered in entrepreneurial life-skill.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
