Fighting early marriages: Bitten by something dark

Dorica Julius, 17, is a Standard Eight pupil who lives at Goliati Trading Centre in Thyolo District.

She relates her life to Skeffa Chimoto’s hit song Chinamuluma Chakuda which basically talks about a girl who has learnt a lesson of love relationships the hard way.

For a long time, Julius says, she felt she was not beautiful.

“Most of my friends had boyfriends when I did not have one. Since I was using Vaseline petroleum jelly for my skin, I felt that some skin lightening creams would make me look attractive. Hence I decided to find a boyfriend,” says Julius.

Later, Julius, who was living with her elder sister, met a village boy who changed her life.

“He used to sell vegetables. I was a poor girl and so to have someone give me money for body lotions and snacks during class breaks meant a lot,” Julius says.

She says the boyfriend would give her K500 per week and she was happy. But her happiness ended the moment her sister got news of the relationship.

“My boyfriend visited my home and found my sister, who quickly told him that he should marry me. The boy tried to say he was not ready, but my sister threw me out of her house. When I went to the boy’s parents, his mother was not happy. She said her son was too young to marry,” Julius says.

At that time, the boyfriend was only 18 and a primary school dropout. The boy’s parents gave them a small hut to live in But, Julius says, life was unbearable for the teenage family.

“We would go into people’s gardens soon after harvesting and pick up the remaining maize. We would then sell vegetables in surrounding villages. That is how we survived in the one and half months I spent as a married girl,” she recalls.

Julius later approached the village chief and told him she wanted to leave the marriage and return to school.

That is how she found herself back at her sister’s house, and back in class.

Although the experience scathed her life, Julius has chosen to focus on the future. She is back at Goliati Primary School.

“When I came back, some of my classmates made fun of me. I have chosen to ignore them because I want to get educated and have a bright future,” she says.

At school, her teachers, especially Brenda Chimeta, have been supportive.

“Julius’ behaviour and performance now shows that her experience has reinforced her commitment to excel in school. She made a good decision because early marriages not only lead to unwanted pregnancies, they also make girls vulnerable to HIV and Aids,” says Chimeta.

She says Julius is not the only one who has returned to school.

“Last year, five girls came back from marriages,” she says.

Chimeta’s sentiments are in line with Dr. Andrew Likaka, Thyolo district health officer, who complained of rising cases of teenage pregnancies in the district.

Likaka said last year alone, the district hospital’ had 165 cases of teenage pregnancies.

“About 100 were from primary schools. We are also having rising cases of post-abortion care. Usually, it is girls under the age of 15 years who come for post-abortion care.”

The hospital tested 30 000 youths for HIV since last year and 1 200 tested positive, the majority being girls, according to the doctor.

However, despite the widespread HIV messages, not everyone has gone for testing.

Julius’s village is in one of the most affected districts in the country. Likaka said one in every 10 people that are on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the country are in Thyolo and around 5 000 are under the age of 15 years.

This means girls such as Julius, who start sexual relations at an early age, are at high risk of contracting HIV.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and UNAids-joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids published findings in November. The study indicates that although there is progress in reducing HIV and Aids infections and deaths, adolescents seem to be a forgotten age group and HIV.

“Approximately two thirds of new HIV infections in adolescents aged 15–19 years were among girls. Adolescents experience a second wave of vulnerability to HIV that is driven by many factors, and they encounter numerous barriers to accessing services,” indicates the report.

“A good start in life has a clear influence on later development. And adolescents provides an opportunity to reinforce health, nutrition and education bases, and the social and economic drivers that contribute to a healthy and productive adult life,” reads the report in part.

While the number of Aids-related deaths for all ages fell by 30 percent between 2005 and 2012 globally, it increased by 50 percent among adolescents.

Likaka explains that, this is partly due to policies that tend to exclude the adolescents.

“Almost everywhere you go, you find a hospital has wards for males, females and children. Have you ever heard of a patient ward for adolescents? These are some of the policy issues we are talking about,” he says.