It Takes A World

Her Majesty the Queen of Lesotho - ‘Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso Violence against children has become a global scourge affecting more than a billion children around the world - affecting them into adulthood and also impacting communities. Her Majesty the Queen of Lesotho - ‘Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso, in her capacity as Lesotho’s champion for vulnerable children, delivered a keynote address during the Southern Africa regional launch of a five year ' It Takes A World To End Violence Against Children' campaign. “Children are a treasure and our future in our African society as in many other cultures around the world. Children therefore need to be protected and taken a good care of." “Child molestation continues in many forms such as corporal punishment, marriages and child labour. I believe child marriage remains common amongst most countries in the Southern Africa region but is not reported well,” she said. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Chil...

Lesotho's Minister of Justice and Human Rights and Correctional Services - Dr. Mahali Phamotse SADC government officials who attended the SADC launch of “It takes the world to end violence against children campaign, agree that the problem is not the absence of laws and policies protecting children, but the implementation. In their contributions during a roundtable discussion, they all agreed that as much as there is some progress in some countries, more still needs to be done to ensure children are protected. The minister of Justice from Lesotho Dr. Mahali Phamotse indicated that the laws are there in many countries. The problem is implementation especially penalties on perpetrators of the crime. “I must confess that we have very good laws but enforcement of penalties remain a problem," she said, adding that there are also laws that are still not harmonised.  “We for example have laws that still refer to the age of 16 as legal for the marriage of girls whilst others r...

Chair of a Sub-Committee for Gender and Social affairs in Mozambique - Mrs Antonio Simao Charre The Chair of a Sub-Committee for Gender and Social affairs in Mozambique, Mrs Antonio Simao Charre says her country is continually dedicated to creating awareness on child protection by engaging religious leaders as well as interfaith groups.  Sharing her country’s progress at the Southern Africa regional campaign launch recently, she said that in support of efforts by World Vision, debate is going on in her country regarding how to combat this war on violence against children. “We have among other things child to child mentorships as well as radio programmes aimed at sensitizing the people on issues of child protection.”  She added that a legal framework has also been put in place as a way of promoting child protection. Another milestone is the establishment of a service called monitoring of works around rights of the girl child and how to strengthen families. This globa...

Inkosi Theresa Kachindamonto “Marriage  can wait   until these young girls  finish school,” says the   chief of Malawi  who   seems to have   answered   with a “yes “ to a call to end child marriages   in her   country. Sharing her experiences in her journey   to fight child marriages   at the Southern Africa region launch of the global campaign “It takes the world to end violence against children recently,   Inkosi Theresa Kachindamonto revealed how she defied all odds and spent six months going from village to village sensitising communities   about the problem. “I would get threats like do you want to die chief?” she said. That however did not stop her from her mission to stop early marriages and ensuring that children are in school.  Working with women groups as well as law enforcement agencies, if a girl got pregnant she would ensure that she was allowed to go through ante-natal clinic and when the ...

Children's rights activist - Margaret Musonda  She is 17 years old but already making her voice heard by the world. The Zambian children’s rights activist Margaret Musonda is working towards an ideal world for all children. Musonda conducts community sensatization meeting where she talks about children’s rights and the elders participate including the chief. This enables the community to be aware of children’s rights including the right to education. It also empowers the community, even those who are uneducated to know about basic universal rights. Margaret, working with her young members started a radio programme on Zambian Sky FM Radio that highlighted some violations of their rights in their homes and the community. The live programmes led the traditional leader - Chieftainess her Royal Highness Choongo, to champion the campaign to end child marriage. Since then there has been commitment from various partners that include all the key government ministries and institutio...

Chairperson for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Women Caucus Dr Jessie Kabwila Non-Governmental Organisations working on eradicating violence against children, especially child marriages, should study and calculate cost of the malpractice on the regional economic growth. The call was made by Chairperson for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Women Caucus Dr Jessie Kabwila during a SADC campaign launch by the children’s charity, World Vision, called ‘It Takes a World to End Violence Against Children' in South Africa, on 30 August. Just like a June 2017 World Bank report said, Kabwila agreed that violence against children and child marriages in particular, bring with them multiple development outcomes with implications on economic wellbeing. Kabwila said that because moving forward with the campaign demands political will, there was need to approach states in the region with statistics that highlight the impact of ...