9 girls rescued from Chinamwali initiation ceremony in Katete

NINE school-going girls from Chief Mbang’ombe’s chiefdom in Katete have been rescued from the Chinamwali initiation ceremony.

Chief Mbang’ombe of the Chewa people of Katete and Sinda has said the nine were rescued after a tip from the public.

“Recently, we rescued nine girls from a woman who had recruited them for Chinamwali initiation. It’s a woman, the very people we have been talking about,” Chief Mbang’ombe said.

The traditional ruler was speaking during the launch of the 16 days of activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) held under the theme “range the world: end violence against women now”.

He stated that the woman culprit made a mistake by taking a girl in an examination class into her initiation circle.

“Mostly, it is these same women who ruin things for themselves, they take a school-going child who is in an examination class and take her for Chinamwali and expect her to come back to school to write the examination. The next thing we hear is that that child has stopped school,” he said.

Chief Mbang’ombe has since called for enhanced cooperation between the women initiators and the traditional leadership so that such cases involving school girls do not continue to happen in his chiefdom.

He underscored the importance of cooperation in upholding traditions like Chinamwali so that the future of the girl child and that of a boy child are protected and made bright.

The Chief indicated that the woman has now got a case before his throne as the girls she had taken in for initiation were supposed to be in school.

Meanwhile, Katete District Commissioner Michael Matebele has bemoaned the failure to report GBV cases timely.

And St Francis Mission Hospital One-Stop Centre representative John Mwanza urged the public to report GBV cases as all services rendered to the victims of are free.

Further, he also hinted some of the forms of GBV that the public might overlook such as failure to take a child to school, and child neglect.