Kachindamoto is the youngest daughter of a previous chief and she moved to a new town where she worked as a secretary for 27 years.
She is very kind and aware of everyday issues in the area, due to her kind behavior, people voted for her to become chief during the next election.
Kachindamoto was overwhelmed when she realized that the people wanted her to be chief of the town, but she vowed to use her new-found power for good in the community.
Kachindamoto, who is the youngest of 12 children, is now the chief of Monkey Bay, Malawi. Her first priority is to change the lives of hundreds of young girls.
“Child marriage was made illegal in Malawi in 2015, but many families still practice it. This is due to the fact that it is allowed with parental permission. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and many families allow their child to marry older men purely because they can’t afford to keep them. They feel they have no choice and would prefer their daughter to be alive, even if it means she is married at an age as young as 12,” explains Happiest.
The UN found in their study that, over half of Malawi’s girls were married before the age of 18. Many times, many of these give birth at young ages, causing complications and health issues because of their small bodies.
She stopped annul 850 child marriages, and also sent all of the young girls to school. She’s hoping that this tradition will change now and these women will not get forced to child marriages, they can focus on becoming educated and live like a normal child.
Kachindamoto knows that not everyone in the town and area is happy about the new chief’s decision. Knowing this, she knew that the tradition shouldn’t just be changed, so she changed the actual law as well – even she fired four sub-chiefs who refused to ban the practice.
“I don’t care, I don’t mind. I’ve said whatever, we can talk, but these girls will go back to school,” she said.