Female Chief Annuls 850 Child Marriages In Malawi And Sends All Girls Back To School

Theresa Kachindamoto is a real-life superhero!

She holds power over more than 900,000 people as a senior chief in the Dedza District of Central Malawi, and she is not afraid to use her authority to help all the women and young girls in her district. Believe it or not, she has canceled more than 850 child marriages over the last 3 years, and she sent thousands of young women back to school.

According to a survey conducted by the United Nations back in 2012, more than half of the girls in Malawi end up getting married before the age of 18, and there’s a very low ranking on the human development index consistently. However, Kachindamoto’s attitude towards this has made her a vital ally in the fight of child’s rights and women’s rights.

She was working as a secretary in another district for 27 years before she was called to come in her home district of Dedza and serve as a chief. She was dismayed at the sight of girls as young as 12 having their babies and young husbands, and she decided to take action. The country of Malawi raised the legal age to marry to 18 last year, but there’s a loophole which allows girls younger than the legal age to marry. It’s called the ‘parental consent’, and it basically means that if the parents agree for the child to be married, it can be married.

More than 50 sub-chiefs were ordered by Kachindamoto to sign an agreement to end child marriage in the district, and she even went on to suspend a few male chiefs that continued to approve the marriages. And not that she only sent these children back to school, she even offered to pay their school fees with her own money.

In a country where one in five girls is a victim of assault, and where girls are often married early to ease off their parent’s financial problems, Theresa Kachindamoto is a bright star. She has threatened to dismiss any chief that will continue to allow the controversial practices, and even though she has faced a lot of opposition from parents and community members (which even includes threats to her own well being), she remains determined to change the laws and the minds in the community for the benefits of the women and young girls and their futures.