ROSE SAKALA CELEBRATES IWD IN LILONGWE WITH THE FIRST LADY, PROF. GERTRUDE MUTHALIKA
Rose Sakala celebrates IWD in Lilongwe with the first lady, Prof. Gertrude Muthalika. Every 8th of March is International Women’s Day (IWD), the Ministry of Gender with the help of many International bodies organized to commemorate this day at the Bingu International Convocation Centre (BICC). Rose Sakala, Star Prize Winner for FALA 2015 was given an opportunity to welcome the first lady of the Republic of Malawi, Prof Gertrude Muthalika and she was invited to give a motivational speech for being an activist for youth and women related issues. In her speech she said; “Malawi has the highest prevalence of child marriage. At 42%, the prevalence rate is higher than the regional average for sub Saharan African at 37%. It ranks 13th on the world list of countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage, with nearly 1 in 2 girls married by the age of 18. The rate of child marriage is 7 times higher among girls than boys. 12 % of women are married before they are 15 compared to only 1.2 % for the men. It is estimated that half of the girls will be married by their 18th birthday. In Karonga, through the commonwealth national alliance on ending early child and forced marriages which I happen to be the National Chairperson, we have been able to pull out over 400+ girls from these marriages and readmitted about 120 girls with the support of FOCUS (a local NGO) and other NGO’s out of which I support 6 girls with their secondary school education. I therefore call every one of us to #pressforprogress in ending early child and forced marriages and promoting women and girls rights. The change we desire for Malawi will not come until we take full part in changing things, every one of us has a role to play, let’s make up pledges and commitments towards girl education and ending child marriage
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