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Female chief comes to power in Malawi district and annuls child marriages
Changing a cultural tradition isn't easy, but one woman wanted to make sure young girls had the opportunity to live their own lives.
Jessica
08.12.21

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

She’s also a hero.

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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 the Dedza district chose her as the next chief.

Now the chief of over 900,00 people, it was time to put her leadership skills to the test.

Theresa took the position, and once she was in charge, there was something that immediately needed to change. This change was long overdue.

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.

And it isn’t confined to girls, there are boys forced into child marriages as well around the same age.

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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 the opportunity to be in school and enjoy their youth, and she was going to make sure they got the chance.

First order of business: Give the word for the 50 sub-chiefs to abolish child marriage in the district, and annul all existing child marriages.

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

Thanks to her, countless young girls can rest easy and go to school to be given a chance at their own lives. Now they can be treated like girls, not property. Chiefs she fired got reinstated when she found reassurance that they’d cooperate.

“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.)

But 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.

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.

So far over 900 child marriages have been terminated.

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These are exactly the kinds of stories that inspire and keep us going.

Be sure to scroll down below and press PLAY to hear from the hero chief herself!

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Article Sources:
Inews
UNICEF
Aljazeera
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By Jessica
[email protected]
Jessica is a writer at Shareably.
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