Thomson Reuters Foundation: Malawi’s forced sex camps hurt girls as much as child marriage: campaigner
“The custom in Malawi of sending girls to sexual initiation camps is just as harmful as child marriage and must end if the nation is serious about protecting girls’ rights, a teenager who escaped being a child bride said. Memory Banda, 18, said the tradition of early sexual initiation, seen as a way of preparing pubescent girls for marriage, was forcing girls to have sex and exposing them to the risk of HIV infection…” (Zweynert, 4/17).