Girl child activists have called upon the police to arrest a 22 year old man of Njenjema village traditional authority Liwonde in Machinga district, who is reportedly roaming around Scott free despite impregnating four underaged primary school girls.
Activist Joyce Chitsulo also executive director for Nditsogolo Langa organization was reacting when drawn for comment after Zodiak Online revealed the malpractice.
She has asked the police to act swiftly and professionally.
“The fact that these cases were reported to Police and the man is still seen loitering around in the village is uncalled-for and we urge the Police to arrest the suspect and take him before a court of Law for justice so as deter other would be defilers,” said Chitsulo.
She then asked Group village Njenjema reportedly an uncle to the suspect, to surrender his nephew to Police not obstructing an arrest.
Two of the four girls, one of whom is five months pregnant while the other has a three year old child.
They all mentioned Fabiano Angelo as the man who has forced them out of primary school after impregnating them.
They said in separate interviews at their homes that Angelo dumped them with no support for the pregnancy and the baby.
Head teacher for Njenjema school where all the four girls were learning, John M’jeliwa said the problem is out of hand and needs joint interventions.
“About five girls are being impregnated each year here, and like in these particular cases of one-man impregnating four, are reported to relevant authorities but the action is not favourable,” said M’jeliwa.
Chairperson for child protection committee of the area Foster Kwawani concurs with the head teacher that despite writing referral letters to Mangamba police post in the area, the perpetrators are left scot-free, thereby putting more young girls at risk of defilement.
Officer in charge for Mangamba police Ephraim Mwenifumbo admitted receiving referral letters from child protection committee and said they still hunting for Fabiano Angelo to effect an arrest.
Plan Malawi an organisation which is implementing Yes I do project in collaboration with five other non-governmental organisations aimed at bailing out young girls from early marriages and teenage pregnancies, says teenage pregnancies remains a major challenge.
Yes I do project manager at Plan Malawi Joseph Maere says recent evaluation revealed that early marriages have reduced, but teenage pregnancies keep rising.
“We still have work to do in order to address this challenge, and we have just Incorporated Population services international- PSI to join Family planning association of Malawi -FPAM, on part of family planning, as one other intervention among others,” said Maere.
Some cultural beliefs and scarcity of long-term family planning methods are reportedly to be contributing factors.
Source:Zodiak
