School walls send message to community

A series of murals have been drawn at Kizinga Primary School in Mbagala to raise awareness on sexual abuse, child marriage and the importance of parental support, especially for girls. Photo: @CanadaTanzania

A series of murals by schoolchildren at Kizinga Primary School were unveiled on June 16, the Day of the African Child.

The murals at the Mbagala school tell stories about sexual abuse, child marriage and importance of parental support, especially for girls.

“Mbagala is an area where there are increasing cases of sexual abuse of boys and girls, incidences of school dropouts because of pregnancy and incidences of child marriage. Any other school could have participated in this exercise, but the goal is not to just target the school, the goal is to reach out to as many people in the community so that they can understand the problem and take action to respond to the problem,” says Kokuteta Mutembei, director of EKAMA Development Foundation, which is involved in overseeing the mural project.

The mural messages include: ‘no early marriages for us,’ ‘rape is not acceptable,’ ‘treat boys and girls equally and they both will succeed,’ and ‘let me go to school.’

The High Commissioner of Canada Alexandre Leveque was on hand to unveil the murals which were painted under the guidance of artist Abbas Mbuka.

“The future of children in Africa is secured through education,” says Leveque.

Read more: If these walls could talk