Theresa Kachindamoto,
supervisor of a district in Malawi, a country in Africa, stands as a feminist
leader helping women and their community of girls.
Over the past three years,
she has canceled more than 850 forced marriages, put girls at school and
started a fight to abolish ritual initiating children sexually.
The Hypeness
More than half of women in Malawi end up marrying before 18. Moreover, the country still has a low Human Development Index. For these and other Kachindamoto the work is so important.
She has worked in the area
for 27 years and still not for winning victories for their society. It was only
last year that she was able to establish the age of 18 for a wedding (even with
parent signature). It is common to girls under 12 pregnant because of that. And
now she fights for that age be raised to 21 years.
To be a very poor region, it
is a high incidence of families arranging marriages for girls in order to
alleviate the expenses of the house, leaving the costs to the future husband.
And the consequences of behaviors like those that decrease the female voice in
society are drastic. One in five women are victims of sexual abuse. What is of
great concern, since HIV rates grow in the country.
Because of their conduct and
attitude, Theresa has even been threatened with death by other politicians who
are against their policies. But she swings and says she will continue fighting
until death. And leave a message when interviewed: "if they are educated,
they can be whatever they want." That is, even wives and mothers. But if
they want.
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