00:00Former United States First Lady, Michelle Obama, alongside global influential figures
00:09Melinda Gates and human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, were here in Malawi to engage over
00:13300 girls from various schools.
00:16Among the schools visited by these three exceptional women are Luzi Girls and Chinji Mission Secondary
00:21Schools.
00:22During their visit, they championed the cause against child marriages, promoted gender equality
00:27and explored how their respective organizations could support Malawi.
00:31I want to fight to make sure that the world sees you because I know who you are.
00:37Child marriage is something that still happens quite often and there are many factors that
00:42contribute.
00:43Today, I'll be talking to girls here in Chinji who had the privilege of rubbing shoulders
00:48with these powerful women.
00:49I'm Alertha for Girls of Mute and I can't wait to get to know their first-hand experience.
00:54Let's get talking.
00:55You guys are so, so lucky.
00:57You literally met the most powerful women on earth.
00:59How did that feel, Ntanda?
01:01For me, it was a really heartwarming experience because it was her first time coming here
01:06and for the first time, she came to Malawi and she was coming for us, Luzi, and that
01:12was a really great honor.
01:14How is it for you, Isabel?
01:16I felt a blessed cause meeting the former First Lady of United States.
01:21I felt that I can achieve all of my goals.
01:23You know when you're having that kind of a strong feeling that if she did it, then
01:27why can't I?
01:28These three women came here especially to talk more about the fight on gender-based
01:33violence and child marriages.
01:35Does that resonate with you as an African girl, Ntanda?
01:40Being Malawian, I have peers who are supposed to be at school getting married.
01:45Some of them who are just married because they're influenced by others and poverty too.
01:50So seeing those prominent women here trying to decrease these levels and hopefully even
01:56end it really made me feel happy because there's someone who cares.
02:02There are those people who care about us girls whose futures are being ruined and who could
02:07actually provide for us, make this world a better place.
02:12This has been very great, but do you have any last words, Ivy?
02:18As a country, we have to fight for the girls whose rights are being violated.
02:25Those girls who are entering an early marriage, who are being forced into a marriage.
02:31If prominent women from other countries, America, if they are fighting for us, so why not?
02:37We should fight for us ourselves.
02:39Exactly.
02:40Do you have any last words?
02:42My last words are going to girls in Malawi.
02:47We have to work up and push.
02:50If those prominent women come here to fight for us, it means we also need to put our own
02:55efforts to end child marriage.
02:57Ntanda, any last words?
02:59My last words go to girls like me and to other people who are willing to end child marriages.
03:07In some societies, girls actually take it as a custom, as a normality that they're supposed
03:13to get married early because that's what the society teaches them.
03:18So to all the girls out there, you have the right to be educated to become someone and
03:22not someone's wife.
03:23I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but you have to first be independent and then think about
03:29marriage.
03:30Oh my goodness, that's very beautiful.
03:32And that concludes the insights from my fellow teenagers who had a life-changing experience
03:37with the First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, Melinda Gates, and
03:42the human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney.
03:45I trust you've gained valuable insights from these girls.
03:48I'm Alertha Banda reporting for Girls of Mute in Chinji, Malawi.
03:52Bye!
03:53Bye!
03:54Bye!
03:55Bye!
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