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Champions to End Child Marriage in Africa
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Champions leading to end child marriage in Africa

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Portrait of Matthias Phiri, Program Coordinator for LifeSavers Zambia.

In communities outside Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka, Matthias Phiri meets regularly with traditional leaders, faith-based organizations, school and police officials, and other prominent locals to strategize ways to combat child marriage.

Members of his ever-growing circle keep an eye out for children who are at risk of getting married and intervene if necessary, pulling vulnerable children out of harm’s way, providing them counseling, re-enrolling them in school and, in some cases, pursuing legal remedies against the perpetrators of child marriage.

The biggest challenge, he said, is the discord between the country’s statutory laws, which set the minimum marriage age at 21, and its customary laws, which allow for much greater latitude. Recognizing that conflict, Zambia’s government launched a campaign in 2013 to end child marriage, focusing primarily on engaging traditional leaders in that effort.
“According to the custom, maybe in one chiefdom, a child can be anybody, maybe 6 or maybe 28. As long as you have a father, you have a mother, you are a child of somebody,” said Phiri. “So we need to attach age, and we need to harmonize this legislation . . . so that we can use that law to champion the fight against child marriage.”

For a portrait series on champions leading to end child marriage in Africa. All images made at the first-ever African Girls’ Summit on Ending Child Marriage, held in Lusaka, Zambia. The meeting aimed to facilitate exchange of good practices and challenges in ending child marriage, and to secure and renew commitments from African stakeholders.

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Portrait of Matthias Phiri, Program Coordinator for LifeSavers Zambia.<br /> <br /> In communities outside Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka, Matthias Phiri meets regularly with traditional leaders, faith-based organizations, school and police officials, and other prominent locals to strategize ways to combat child marriage.<br /> <br /> Members of his ever-growing circle keep an eye out for children who are at risk of getting married and intervene if necessary, pulling vulnerable children out of harm’s way, providing them counseling, re-enrolling them in school and, in some cases, pursuing legal remedies against the perpetrators of child marriage.<br /> <br /> The biggest challenge, he said, is the discord between the country’s statutory laws, which set the minimum marriage age at 21, and its customary laws, which allow for much greater latitude. Recognizing that conflict, Zambia’s government launched a campaign in 2013 to end child marriage, focusing primarily on engaging traditional leaders in that effort.<br /> “According to the custom, maybe in one chiefdom, a child can be anybody, maybe 6 or maybe 28. As long as you have a father, you have a mother, you are a child of somebody,” said Phiri. “So we need to attach age, and we need to harmonize this legislation . . . so that we can use that law to champion the fight against child marriage.”<br /> <br /> For a portrait series on champions leading to end child marriage in Africa. All images made at the first-ever African Girls’ Summit on Ending Child Marriage, held in Lusaka, Zambia. The meeting aimed to facilitate exchange of good practices and challenges in ending child marriage, and to secure and renew commitments from African stakeholders.