Zimbabwe's Child Brides

About the Book

Read about Mwatambudzeni’s Story and the Village Insider’s Story. The author has provided the contrasting lifestyles of two young Zimbabwean girls because available research data about the status of women in Zimbabwe is fragmented. This book is a blend of fact and fiction, combining occurrences that influence health and quality of life, especially in a patriarchal society. This blend comprises scholarly research data and my own experience as the Village Insider. From a research perspective, these stories represent a description of the problem. This book has been written for a broad readership that includes any individual with an interest in learning about the plight of Zimbabwean women, scholars and practitioners in the Humanities, as well as Health Sciences. The intended audience includes workers involved in community development, social development, education, and community health, and others who consider women’s health studies, women’s rights, cultural studies and gender studies important. This book spotlights the extent to which women’s lives are influenced by multiple complex factors. For that reason, this book also provides a simplified description and illustration on how to develop and implement interdisciplinary collaborations to investigate and address complex human and social development problems. Specifically, this book presents a comprehensive approach to investigating the social factors that impact on women’s health, and the design of comprehensive intervention programs. To this end, the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model of Health Promotion is used in conjunction with Community-Based Participatory Action (CBPA).

About the Author

There are few people better positioned to write about the plight of rural Zimbabwean women than Jane Handina Murigwa Kanchense (Handina). Handina was born and raised under very similar circumstances to those that are described in this book. She has over 30 years experience as a nurse, midwife, health educator, and public health program manager. Consequently Handina has first-hand knowledge of the issues that she writes about in Zimbabwe’s Child Brides. Today Handina is the Research and Evaluation Coordinator, Northern Health, British Columbia, Canada, and the CEO/founder of Efficient Programs Design Consulting, a management consulting service. Her goal in establishing this service was to design efficient programs so communities can be strengthened through their own self-determination to realize socially sustainable development. She is passionate about enabling her clients to the point where they achieve optimum performance as measured by program sustainability. Handina is an independent management consultant, speaker, and trainer. She is an avid advocate of socially sustainable development and has authored several peer-reviewed publications on the topic. The Ndaramo Wellness Initiatives is one of her lifelong dreams of contributing toward socially sustainable development in a society that is troubled by social inequalities, such as is the condition of rural Zimbabwean women. For more information about Handina, the Efficient Programs Design Consulting service, or to support the Ndaramo Wellness Initiatives, please visit: www.EfficientPrograms.com.