Day: June 18, 2021

Zimbabwe has announced stricter coronavirus measures along its northern border with Zambia after a spike in confirmed infections. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says the strict regulations should be followed by efforts to secure more vaccines once the situation is contained.

Reading a statement from President Emmerson Mnangagwa on national television Thursday night, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said Zimbabwe had noticed a sharp spike in cases of COVID-19 in Zambia and in the areas near its northern neighbor.

“I therefore direct that the following measures be implemented in order to control the spread of COVID-19 in these areas: Curfew from 1800 hours to 0600 hours,” Chiwenga said. “Entry or exit into these districts is prohibited except for essential services. Public transport to carry half their carrying capacity to enable physical distancing. Every public transport vehicle be disinfected after every trip.”

Chiwenga — who doubles as Zimbabwe’s health minister — said all restrictions imposed throughout Zimbabwe over the past weekend such as bans on gatherings except for funerals would also apply to the three districts of Makonde, Hurungwe and Kariba.

Only 30 people would be allowed at funerals, according to the restrictions he announced over the weekend.

There was no word on when the measures may be lifted.

Speaking via messaging app, Dr. Norman Matara, from the Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights, said the localized lockdowns have worked in countries like U.S., Britain, Italy and Germany.

He urged tight enforcement by the government to ensure success.

“Of course we have seen a decrease in terms of vaccinations, but when we see community spread of infections, what we really [need] to focus on is to implement things like lockdowns, increase testing capacity, quickly identify positive cases,” Matara said. “We isolate them and we do contact-tracing such that we minimize the number of cases we are recording every day. And once the cases go down, we can go on preaching the gospel of vaccinations.”

Zimbabwe’s vaccination effort against the global pandemic has recently been hit by shortages of shots.

But officials say the country still has some stocks of the 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines it has received from China, Russia and India since February.

So far, nearly 700,000 Zimbabweans have received their first shots, and close to 427,000 have received their second.

Zimbabwe has just under 41,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,647 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the global outbreak.

Source: Voice of America

Like many 14-year-old girls, Sifa Maulana had a dream. Hers was to become a nurse.

Her family didn’t support Sifa’s ambitions.

“My grandmother said, ‘If you don’t want to get married, you better leave now.’ I packed my clothes, asked my brother-in-law for 100 meticais” — about $1.60 — “and went to the bus stop,” said Sifa, who faced the ultimatum in May.

Sifa left her home in Mutuali, a village in Mozambique’s northern province of Nampula, and took the bus to Malema town. There, she went to a Catholic church to pray — and confided in nuns there about her situation. She told them her older sister was studying to join a religious order at the Mater Dei Monastery in Nampula town. The nuns at the church confirmed Sifa’s connections and sent the girl to the monastery, where she was welcomed in mid-May.

“We introduced her to other girls here at home,” said Mother Maria, a member of the Contemplative Community of the Servants of Mary. She did not disclose Sifa’s biological sister’s name or make her available for an interview.

Sifa was doing well after roughly a week at the monastery, Mother Maria told VOA Portuguese on May 30. “She helps, she takes care of the babies at the orphanage. But now we need to decide how to get her school records so she can continue her studies.”

The threat of early marriage and disrupted education is all too common, said Mother Maria.

“It is very worrying because there is oppression. Women in general have always been oppressed. Premature marriage is happening a lot,” she said. To lessen their financial strain, families — especially poor families — “want to quickly put children out of the house, taking mouths out of the house.”

The coronavirus pandemic has heightened the risk of child marriage around the world in communities “affected by economic shocks” and with “limited access to basic services such as health, education and child protection,” UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency, reported last year. The U.N. estimates the pandemic could lead to as many as 13 million additional child marriages between 2020 and 2030 that otherwise might have been avoided.

Mozambique already “has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, affecting almost one in every two girls,” UNICEF reported.

Child marriage not only usually ends schooling for girls but also increases their vulnerability to domestic abuse and violence, UNICEF warns. The practice also endangers girls’ health if they bear children before their bodies are fully mature and if they contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

In 2019, Mozambique outlawed marriage for anyone younger than 18. But the law is seldom enforced and violations are rarely reported, said Nzira de Deus, executive director of Fórum Mulher Mozambique, a national network of women’s rights organizations.

Several factors complicate the law’s implementation, Deus said.

First, there’s a lack of awareness, and of social acceptance, that girls have the right to freedom of choice, she said. Second, “macho culture camouflaged with harmful social and cultural practices … undermine women’s human rights.”

Finally, according to de Deus, there is “impunity due to the … weak response services to complaints about forced and premature unions.”

Nonetheless, the network urges reporting to authorities any cases of underage marriage that are being planned or have taken place.

For now, Sifa has averted an unwanted early marriage, and Mother Maria said the religious order is committed to helping the girl continue her education: “We must help her going forward so she can be someone in life.”

Source: Voice of America