Transcriber: Hussain Laghabi Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
In my country, just 18% of girls attend secondary school.
Why? There are two sides to our stories.
And it starts from when were very young.
First, let me start with the school side.
Primary schools are free in Malawi.
That means that parents do not have to pay fees
to let their children go to school.
But that does not mean that going to school is free.
There are hidden costs, such as textbooks, school uniforms, and materials like pens.
In fact, it is a real challenge for girls to stay in school.
Sometimes, there is not even a classroom and we learn under a tree.
And sometimes, we even have to walk a long way to reach the school.
Often, there are many children in each classroom.
And not enough teaching materials like textbooks.
So you see, it can be a struggle to stay in school.
The other side is that there is pressure from our families to stay at home.
In our culture, a girl must do the housework.
We must find time to cook sweep, draw water
and take care of our younger siblings.
Tradition can also interfere with education.
When a girl reaches puberty
she must take part in an initiation ceremony.
This means that she is taught about how to be a good wife.
Some families, then, feel it is time for their daughters to get married.
So here is the choice that all families face.
When they can marry us off, and in return receive a dowry,
when the new husband pays for us to become their wives.
Or, our families can try hard to keep us in school.
But then they have to pay secondary school fees
because there is no secondary school in Malawi.
Now, what would a poor family do?
Can we really talk of a choice?
Can we blame our mothers and fathers for taking us out of school?
No wonder just 18% of girls attend secondary school in Malawi.
No wonder half of the women in Malawi were married before they we were 18.
But if a girl gets married at 11 or 12, there are dangers.
Having sex and giving birth can be difficult for her
and can even kill her.
If her husband is older than her,
it can be hard for her to manage to love him
because of the age difference.
He believes that because he bought her with a dowry,
she is his own possession.
She cannot leave her husband and return to school.
There is a contract.
Sometimes, in my culture, a man wants a child to be his second wife.
Because his first wife has grown old and tired.
If he has money, he'll buy a child to be his new wife.
So, to me, as long as I know, I say:
"Money is one thing, but wisdom is another."
So shouldn't we, the girls of Malawi, find courage to express our own wishes
and our own dreams?
I say that, we, the new generation,
should believe in the power of our own voices
and the right to say 'yes' to education, and 'no' to early marriage.
(Applause)
I myself have fought and experienced all the pressure of early marriage.
This is my story:
I was born to the third wife of a polygamous family.
My father died when I was four, and my mother when I was ten.
Then my uncle came and said that my two older sisters
had already got married
and now it was my turn.
I was 12 years old.
I told my uncle I wanted to stay in school.
I did not want to get married.
I had dreams of becoming a journalist.
If I did not go to school, then this would not happen.
My uncle said that he would not pay for me to go to school,
and that I should stay in the village and get married.
He was the only relative I was depending on at that time.
And he said that if I did not obey him,
he would not take care of me anymore,
that I was on my own.
But I made the choice not to stay in the village and get married
because I still wanted to continue my studies.
I was very fortunate that my uncle's (unclear)
took me to a free school for orphans, called Jacaranda school for orphans.
At this school, they provide us with everything,
Such as food, medical care,
and most of all, free secondary and primary level.
And they also give us scholarships to continue to go to universities.
I believe I made the right decision to go to that school.
And it was quite hard to leave my family in the village.
But I was lucky to find a free secondary school in Malawi.
And I'm lucky that this school is a very good one.
There are hundreds of thousands of girls my age who are not so lucky
because they have no choice.
They cannot afford to go to school.
So I'm honored to stand here today
as a strong confident girl
who believes she deserve the right to get education.
And I made the choice
to exceed the expectations of my family and community.
And I would like to give the other girls the same belief
but we cannot do it on our own.
We must try to make the people who have power, our parents,
our men, and our government-
to see that education enables us to become better people.
Let us all try together to make the free quality of education a real possibility
in this country .
Let us all try to exceed expectations.
Thank you.
(Applause)