Mozambique: Spanish Foundation stresses urgency of efforts to combat child mortality - Watch
Voa / Agira Correia got married when she was 16 years old
Sexual harassment in schools by teachers is on the increase in Mozambique.
Figures suggest that more than 1,500 girls have suffered sexual harassment in the country’s schools this year. In return for sexual favours, teachers pass pupils up into the next grade, often with the collusion of the students [victims] victims themselves, reads a report by Voice of America’s edition in Portuguese.
The theme was debated at the Third National Conference of Young Girls in Nampula. At the conference, civil society organisations also expressed concern about early marriage, proposing penalizing parents who prevent their daughters from deciding their own future this way.
At the age of 11, Rebecca Antonio, from Manica province, was being forced by her parents to marry in the family’s interests, but the marriage did not go ahead as a result of intervention of the Foundation for Community Development who sensitised her parents to the issue.
Today, she is 16 years old and in Grade 9, and an activist against early marriage.
Agira Correia, who is also 16 years old and from Nampula, did not have the same luck. Currently married and the mother of a girl, she appeals to girls to pursue their studies.
The 116 ‘Fala Criança’ [“Speak, Child”] helpline, which last year received about 130,000 calls, is also receiving reports of rape. The head of the line, Calisto Guambe, said it has been working other organisations to intervene on these issues.
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