SENIOR CHIEF THERESA KACHINDAMOTO – in Vital Voices Global Partnership
“If girls are educated, they can be and have whatever they want.”
Theresa Kachindamoto didn’ t expect to become one of Malawi’ s Senior Chiefs. She’ s the youngest of 12 siblings and a mother of 5. But she also has chieftain blood. Theresa was content, living in the small city of Zomba and working as a secretary at the local college. Then one day she was told to pack her bags and come home to Monkey Bay – she’ d been made Senior Chief of Dedza District.
She wore traditional red robes and set out to meet her people. Dedza District sits between Mozambique and Lake Malawi. It’ s home to 900,000 people and the average family lives on $11 a month. In Malawi, half the population lives under the poverty line. The country also has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world: 1 in 2 girls is married by 18. For poor families, early marriage is a way to ease their economic burden. It’ s also a custom that many cling to as a cultural rite. FOR MORE
CULTURE, education, gender equity, women leaders, womens history, WOMENS LIVES
Sharron
wow! What a powerful woman and what a joy to read. People like her certainly offer hope for our world.
I also particularly enjoyed: a country called childhood by jay Griffiths. For most of my years I have felt safer in nature than I have with human beings. Gladly, that is more balance than me now
as I read the introduction and how you do this every week, I am amazed at the discipline you have and being faithful to this realistically hopeful work that you do. I can only imagine how much research it must take given the varied Interest, persons etc. you include. Thanks Jean