Gueta Chapo condemns use of young girls to pay off debts

Marara (Mozambique), 13 Sep (AIM) – Gueta Chapo, the wife of Daniel Chapo, the presidential candidate of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, has condemned the use of young girls to pay off debts contracted by their parents with traditional healers (“witch-doctors”) in parts of the central province of Tete.

Speaking at a rally in Muchamba locality, in the Tete district of Marara, Gueta Chapo said that parents force many girls to interrupt their studies to marry the traditional healers.

“It’s a common practice in this part of the province”, she said, “and it will continue to receive special attention from the government of Frelimo and Daniel Chapo, if they win the elections of 9 October. When the girls reach the stage of “pre-adolescence” they are handed over to the healers to pay off their parents’ debts.

Chapo took the opportunity to condemn domestic violence and child marriage in general. “We have to abandon the practice of child marriage”, she declared. “It should be a priority for women to complete their studies, enter the labour market and finally constitute a family. They can only marry after they are 18 years old”.

She pointed out that child marriages lead to early pregnancies, which cause countless problems for women’s health. At such a young age, she said, girls’ bodies are not prepared to bear children, “and childbirth can be complicated”.

Gueta Chapo met with one vulnerable household, to whom she offered a kit of foodstuffs. She also held a meeting with Marara religious and community leaders, and with a group of young people, in order to obtain information about the real problems of this community.

The participants in this meeting complained of lack of access to clean drinking water, electricity, jobs, housing, and public transport. “We leave the house at 04.00 in the morning and only manage to obtain water eight hours later”, said one resident.

Gueta Chapo promised that these issues will all be addressed, if Frelimo wins the October elections.

(AIM)

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