Senior Chief Theresa Kachindamoto which is known as a "Terminator of the Child Houses".

Senior Chief Theresa Kachindamoto is an influential traditional leaders from Malawi, which is known worldwide as a "Terminator of the Child Houses". It directs Dedza Dedza in the center of the country and has canned thousands of child owners in the course of their term of office to make sure girls return to school and develop their potential. Under its leadership, local regulations have been adopted in the district of expressly prohibiting marriages before the age of 18. Those subordinate tribal leader who continues to allow such marriages (often against gifts of families), enthose them of their office. It is estimated that more than 3,500 child owners were canceled thanks to their commitment. She created a network of local women ("maternal groups"), which tracked and reported in the 545 villages of the district cases of early. This approach made it possible to recognize problems at an early stage. Kachindamoto consistently represents the view that the formation of girls is the key to break the poverty circuit. She supported the financing of school fees, school uniforms and teaching agents - partly from its own resources - and satisfied that girls were returned to school after the dissolution of their marriage. Her campaign provided important social impulses that led to legislative changes in Malawi: In 2017, the minimum house age for both sexes was set by the age of 18 years. As a traditional leadership, it has shown that "Küter of Culture" does not necessarily have to defend harmful practices, but can also change them: culture, such their conviction, should strengthen people's dignity and not undermine. This makes it particularly good to your earlier interest in how traditional structures and the heritage of colonialism affect the living conditions of communities. Their work is an example of a "grassroots" change (change from the base), in which changes are initiated not only by state laws, but also by the review of standards within the communities themselves. This touches them topics that they have already explored: overcoming neo-colonial dependencies, strengthening local self-government, the protection of the rights of women and children as well as the search for ways to design traditions so that they will not become an instrument of oppression. The working model of Theresa Kachindamoto looks for foccigating dimensions. Cachine's photos can be described as a combined top-down / bottom-up strategy that combines traditional authority with community-based mobilization. The central elements are: 1. Binding bylaws (community regulations). They gathered their 51 subcoats and they signed an agreement, which prefers to prefabricate laws under 18 years of habit law. Anyone who did not hire it was suspended - a pressure medium that works only because they as senior chief has the formal power. 2. Network from "Secret Mothers" and "Secret Fathers". In all 545 villages of their district, informal observers (and men) have been installed to report the cases of children's marriage, monitor school absorptions and thus form an early warning system. 3. Combination of sanction and conviction. Parents were not simply punished, but advised - with the argument: "If you have your girl's girl, you can have everything." At the same time, the threat was to dissolve the marriage and send the girl back to school. 4. School return as a core. Every canceled girl was rewritten back to school; Kachindamoto helped school fees and uniforms, partly from their own resources. 5. Inclusion of male elites. She exposed four male subcoats that ignored their rules, and took them back after public reparation. The changed gradually the setting of male leaders - former opponents were allies. 6. Attack for other harmful practices. They fought parallel the sexual "cleaning rituals" (Kusasa Fumbi), where girls must sleep after the first menstruation with older men - a practice that favors HIV infections. How can this model be transferred to other regions? The model is not just "copatable" - it depends strongly on cached steam photos of personal authority. But individual building blocks are already adapted elsewhere: - Zambia: Chief Chikanta and Chief Chamuka have adopted similar municipal regulations and rates of children's marriage and youth pregnancies lowered. Sambia's Ministry of Higher Chiefs and Traditional Affairs leads a national campaign that forms traditional leaderships as "Champions of Change". - Burkina Faso: The Kamsaoogho Naaba (a high-ranking Mossi chief) founded a local NGO, the children from children of marriage, child labor and FGM (FGM is the abbreviation for the English term for Female genital mutilation. In German, this is usually translated as "mutilation of feminine genitals" (often the term "female circumcision" is used, whereby experts sometimes prefer the first variant to no direct parallel To draw male circumcision) protects - among other things about football programs to give children space for their childhood. - Uganda: Queen Mother Best Kemigisa of the Toro-Kingdom uses its traditional authority to publicly project children's and FGM. - SADC-Model Law (2016): The Parliamentary Forum of the Development Community of the Southern Africa has adopted a model law for the eradication of the children's Ha - significantly influenced by Kachindamotos experience, which at the invitation of the UNFPA her Bylaws introduced. It is a direct example of how a local approach to the regional legal standard. - UN-Women meeting in Nairobi (2018): Traditional leaders from 17 African countries exchanged strategies and developed a roadmap, which finally become a continental pact at the Au Summit 2019 In Addis Ababa led. Kachindamotot's approach was presented as a best practice example. What the transferability complicates: - In Western and Central Africa, the children's marriage rate is significantly higher (more than 50% in six countries, up to 76% in Niger), and the role of traditional authorities is partly attributable. - Religious factors are stronger in some regions. In Nigeria, conservatives block a ranking of the marriage age, citing Sharia and customary law. - Poverty drives children's marriage in many regions as an economic survival strategy - without parallel economic measures, legal exile is not enough. Here is the reference to Pan-African approaches in women rights. Kachindamotos Work touches three central strands of the Pan-African women's rights discourse: 1. The Maputo protocol as a legal framework The Protocol on the Convention of the African Charter of Human Rights and the Rights of Peoples on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003, in force since 2005) - known as Maputo Protocol - is the most important continental instrument. Article 5 requires the abolition of harmful practices (including FGM) and Article 6, the regulation of the minimum age for marriage. Kachindamotos Bylaws are a local implementation exactly this article - you translate continental right in customary law that actually grabs in the villages. The RFLD network (670 member organizations in more than 35 countries) tracks the same goal on other level: it tracks the Maputo protocol implementation and combines Grassroots work with legislative Advocacy. 2. Au campaign for the termination of the children's HE (2014-2017, extended) In 2014, the African Union launched a continental campaign against children's marriage, which has four pillars: Advocacy, legal reform, social mobilization at the community level and capacity building of non-governmental actors. Kachindamoto embodies the personalized connection of these columns: it is at the same time legislative (BYLAWS), activist (cancellation) and community organizer (Secret Mothers). The AU campaign has also produced Pan African Alliance to End Child Marriage (PAAECM), which is headed by Naer Chayelela from Zambia - also a traditional guide with local Chargets works. 3. Pan-African feminism and decolonialization Academics such as Hakima Abbas and Amina Mama argue that the Pan-African feminism is aiming for a "double liberation": from colonial heritage and patriarchal structures, partly pre-colonial, partly to be strengthened colonial. The Maputo protocol is not a gift of governments, but the result "multiple and persistent feminist interference" in the Au - "The Protocol, which Achieved, Not Given". In this sense, Kachindamoto is in line with activists such as Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda (Zimbabwe), which was from 2014 to 2022 au-goodwill ambassador to children's owner and the involvement of traditional Institutions systematically advance. The African Women's Rights Advocates (AWRA) formulate this context directly: Your ethos is "for us, by US" - decolonization of the narrative, resources and solution finding, so that African women are their own Define and solve problems. Kachindamotos approach, traditional authority not to be used as an obstacle, but as a lever for change, fits exactly in this paradigm: The keepers of culture are not unimpowered, but re-aligned - away from defense of harmful practices, towards the protection of Girl. 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