Malawi’s abandoned child brides pushed into sex work

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prostitution malawi

Child brides in Malawi are increasingly being pushed into prostitution as growing numbers of early marriages break down, NGOs working with children have claimed.

Although child marriage is illegal, nearly half of girls in the country are wed before their eighteenth birthday and 9 percent before they turn 15, according to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.

But a report by Reuters citing NGOs working with children claims that many child marriages are collapsing as poverty and unemployment drive tens of thousands of young Malawian men to seek work in South Africa.

“Many girls don’t survive early marriages, either because they face abuse and violence by their older partners, or because they are abandoned by men who go to South Africa,” Forbes Msiska, executive director of Badilika a local NGO supporting vulnerable girls with vocational training has been quoted as saying.

Maxwell Matewele, executive director of the charity Eye of the Child, said there had been a visible increase in the number of children forced into prostitution. He said most girls were aged 14 to 18 years, but that he had come across some as young as nine.

The report claims that prostitution is increasingly pitching up in rural settlements as competition in urban areas drives sex workers to find new clients. However, the report did not indicate whether the proliferation of sex work in these locations directly relates to the rise in child marriages or child prostitution.

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18 Comments

  1. You cant help them if they dont need to be helped its not as if they didnt know what they were getting into in the first place nor did anyone pull them by the ear and forced them into early marriage let them be.

  2. Just block the customers, your dad, brother or a friend kukakhwasula, problem solved, but don’t blame atsikana, ndalama palibe. Atsikana ndi azimayi atopa ndikunamizidwa ndi boma za business ndi ntchito, they go out of the house for plan B. Otherwise azafela nyumba kuyembekezela ma promise osathandiza.

  3. Apart from prostitution also the rape cases will go up. Early marriages are a poverty issue and you can’t improve the life of these girls by just abolishing early marriages!

  4. Kodi si achapani cha DPP ndiamene analamula kuti mwana wamkazi atha kukwatira Ali ndi zaka 16 mwaiwala kuti president unja anakuba manda asanamwalile unja ndi chipani Chaka cha dpp anatero ndiye lero tibwele mbuyo ndani amafuna kuwelera mbuyo ,more fire girls please

  5. Teenage prostitutes are taking over now there found everywhere in night clubs, and most of the men respsective of the age are targeting these teenage prostitute than the mature one becouse they get more sexual pressure from these teen than the mature ones. but my Concern is some people are serving 14 years sentence with hard labour in difference prison becouse of having sex with these teenage girls, What about those teenage prostitute found in the night clubs are they not protected?

    I suggest that night clubs need to be regulated ….so that the should not allowing teenages from patronising these night clubs becouse its getting worse now.

  6. Their psychology is impaired coz of the sufferings leading to dallow minds, coz they have nothing else to think about which can save them in order to survive than prostitution, The gvt has to help these ladies!

  7. Uhule oyamwira ngovuta msimungawasinthe ngakhale atamphunzira adzidzapitabe kovula.chinangwa chimabereka chinangwa bwanji ena akuma
    mphunzira kupedza banja lokhazikika

  8. Government & nongovernmental organization they think kumanga amuna okwatira ana zisintha khalidwe lolesa ana akazi kukwatira nditava izi kuti aika lamulo ili ndidadziwa kuti apezabe njira INA yothawira mavuto ,,what makes mwanakazi kukwatira Ali mwana ndiumphawi …but someone in area 10 nyambadwe sangaziwe ,,just drive in town ships & have a look …

  9. Most of these girls want to live expensive life, when they conpletely do nothing to find money. This forces them to start using their private ujeni to source money.

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