大象传媒

About 46 per cent of girls in Malawi are married before the legal age of 18 and almost ten per cent get married before their 15th birthday, according to the United Nation's Children's Charity Unicef.

School closures as a result of Covid-19 may have contributed to a rise in child marriages, says Malawi Minister of Gender Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati. She has been travelling across the country trying to reverse the trend and have child marriages annulled.

The harmful practice is often associated with poor education, lack of employment opportunities and the belief that girls are inferior to boys.

(Photo: A mother and child in Malawi. Credit: Science Photo Library)