One of the biggest challenges I’ve experienced while raising awareness on human trafficking among girls, relates to the difficulty in demonstrating a good example for them. Specifically, a girl coming from different challenging life situations who has been able to divert from the norm of early marriages or human trafficking especially in rural areas, through the power of resilience.
Resilience has been defined in numerous ways: a process; enduring characteristic; capacity to adapt or thrive in the face of significant adversity; successful adaptation or negotiation with one’s surroundings despite threat; good outcomes despite high risk (Masten, Best, and Garmezy 1990; Condly 2006; Miller and Daniel 2007).
With resilience, young girls are able to tap into the resources that are available to them in their communities and are able to use these in order to overcome different obstacles, challenges, and threats they have faced with in their communities and becoming women in their societies.
Those challenges are stories of the past as I now present the story of Malawi-born female footballers, Temwa Chawinga and her sister, Tabitha, who are evidence that a girl’s resilience can set her apart and open doors to rare opportunities. These young women are proof that resilience can be a gamechanger.
Now both are playing international football; Temwa in Kansas, USA and Tabitha in France. Their prowess has earned them recognition, making them a great source of inspiration for the girl-child, especially in Malawi.
“I believe that my success and that of my sisters is inspiring to many girls to chase their dreams, not only in football but other fields and that makes me very happy.”
Breaking gender stereotypes and challenging cultural limitations, Temwa’s rare talent has taken her across oceans and borders, earning her a seat at very high tables in the sport and football world. From humble beginnings in The Warm Heart of Africa, Temwa has played on international football pitches and earned accolades. The football superstar stood out in the second season of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), earning the title of Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the golden boot with 15 goals.
Temwa is regarded one of the best forwards in women’s football, being recognised as the world’s top goal scorer in 2023 with 63 goals.
Nurtured and raised in a culture where the girl-child becomes a victim of circumstance, sometimes being forced to choose a path that stifles her future due to poverty and cultural limitations, Temwa has displayed resilience, hard work and focus, setting a new standard for many young women who sometimes opt for early marriage or face the risk of exploitation, trafficking and sometimes death.
Temwa has redefined success, changing the mindset that its road is only paved by academic excellence. Temwa has called attention to how Malawi perceives talent, showing us that it cannot be dismissed or ignored. She has shown the girl-child that talent counts, and it should be nurtured and celebrated. So, the next time a young woman can dribble a ball as good as a boy, she knows she still has a future. There’s room for another Temwa.
In Malawi, girls are often more vulnerable to different forms of gender-based violence, human trafficking, abuse and exploitation. They continue to suffer from several forms of discrimination and inequality especially in rural areas. There are several traditional and cultural practices that negatively affect girls.
There is also low participation of the girl-child in education and public life in general. Factors that contribute to this position include low persistence in school, low achievement, low quality of education, sexual and other forms of abuse in the school.
The lack of education perpetuates the lack of confidence and disempowers the girl-child from being assertive and making independent choices. This also contributes to the low participation of girls in public life even in later years.
A girl’s education is seldom considered important, and it’s sacrificed for early marriages. Parents believe that it is more worthwhile to educate boys rather than girls and they also consider boys more intelligent than girls.
Girls also suffer poorer health and nutritional status than boys. The problem is further compounded by poor reproductive health. Most girls become sexually active at an early age and thereby becoming prone to teenage pregnancy, abortion, and exposure to venereal diseases. Complications related to early pregnancies and maternal deaths, lack of obstetric services and safe abortion come also in the picture.
Vulnerability of girls has been increased by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Statistics have shown that the rate of infection is higher amongst girls than boys. Apart from the reasons raised above, the increase has also been attributed to the practice and belief by adult males that having sex with a virgin will cure them of HIV/AIDS.
Girls become more vulnerable when found in other vulnerable positions. As a child worker, girls suffer sexual abuse and double heavy workload when they have to combine the work at home and that outside of the home.
Learn more about human trafficking in Malawi through my website and my book: https://maxwellmatewere.com/
