Mozambique: Italy to grant 2.1 million dollars for food security
Folha de Maputo
At least 6,000 girls abandoned Mozambican schools in 2014 and 2015 because of early pregnancies caused by child marriages, Education Minister Jorge Ferrao revealed on Thursday.
Speaking at the village of Muzingo, in the central province of Manica, Ferrao noted that in many cases parents and guardians had consented to child marriages. In some cases, the girls were as young as 13 or 14.
The Minister said the future of these girls has been compromised, and his Ministry wants to put the brakes on a phenomenon which increases poverty among girls and women.
Speaking to Muzingo villagers, Ferrao said the problem of girls dropping out of school can only be tackled if all segments of society are committed to the cause.
“In 2014/15 we lost 6,000 girls”, he said. “We are trying to fight against this, and bring the numbers down. We want no girls to abandon school this year because of child marriages”.
He called for greater involvement by school councils (which contain representatives of teachers, parents and pupils) to make girls aware of the problem.
“The members of our school councils play a very important role”, said Ferrao. “They can help us block this evil. That’s why we’re here to talk to you and ask you to face this challenge together”.
He said that another initiative taken to reduce the drop-out rate was the reintroduction of school snacks, to ensure that children do not go hungry throughout the school day. The programme covers schools in some drought affected regions in Gaza, Inhambane and Tete provinces.
So far the initiative has covered 390,000 pupils. Manica, which has also suffered from drought, restarted the school snack programme, on the initiative of the local education authorities without waiting for instructions from the central Ministry.
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