Secondary School students in Western Lakes State are appealing to the national government to make good use of laws, to protect children from early marriage.
The students were speaking during a child marriage conference organized by community media network in South Sudan.
Gloria Akolda and James Madit Dut say early marriage is an obstacle to girls education in the state.
‘The effect of early marriage, it encourages child abuse, prostitution, poor performance at school, leads to death because the girl is not yet mature. It also encourages cultural norms and abuse and it affects human rights. They {girls}should be patient, do what is right to their parents and they focus on their school. In case of anything, they should report it to any high authority in the state. Our parents should be patient. Allow your girls to mature first. The government should also put law and order against early marriage. Is not only girls who married at early age, but also our brothers get married at early age, said Akolda.
‘My message to my young brothers and sisters is that, you need to pursue your education before you get married. To the parents, you don’t need to marry off your daughters or you don’t need to marry for your son at earlier stage. Marrying for the death people for example, needs to be avoided because when you marry for someone who is death, it will take time of which, you would have used it for education which is not good. It will block your future for someone’s sake. The future will challenge you because of what you do not know, Madit stressed.
Early Marriage Project Consultant, Bena Chobiu appeals to people of Western Lakes and South Sudan at large to stop child marriage and prioritize education of young people for the betterment of the society.
The one-day conference brought together about 150 students from various secondary schools, pupils, parents, teachers and government officials on Friday.