“…My father found a man who was the same age as him who wanted to marry me. I was 14. I did not like the situation and decided to run away the very day that I was supposed to go to that man. I walked all the way to town and eventually I went to Botswana. Life was difficult in Botswana because I did not know how to work yet I needed food to eat and clothes to wear. I lived there for two years but life was very difficult.…” The fathers were actively working with older men whom they knew in trying to marry off their children to these men. Such untenable situations demonstrate the need for fathers to return to their protective roles as moral authorities within their family. There is a need to empower parents with knowledge on the emotional, moral and psychological which they expose their children to by pushing them into marriages with older men. Society as a whole needs to return to its senses and stop condoning the idea that there can be a relationship between a teacher and a child or between any old man and an underage girl. 8. Conclusions The economy in Goromonzi district revolves around agriculture and the informal manufacturing and services provision. Due to the economic challenges bedeviling the national economy, the local economy in Goromonzi has slumped, causing widespread unemployment and poverty which are operating hand-in-glove with multiple religious ideologies that pervade the district. As a consequence of the economic and social problems being experienced in the district, the moral fabric was torn, leading to the proliferation of social ills such as corruption, rape and sexual immorality. These then acted as antecedents to child marriages as people grappled with poverty. Poverty was identified as the biggest driver of child marriage as families and the girls themselves saw marriage as a way out of poverty. Religious coercion of girls was also identified as a major driving factor responsible for child marriages. After conducting virginity tests on young girls, church officials were accused of basically “handing over” supposedly non-virgins into forced child marriages with older men in the church. Overall, marriage was found to be a negative experience for most child brides with the marriages being blighted by financial difficulties and abuse of the child brides by the older husbands and his other wife (or wives). It did not seem to be a greater cause of psychological problems than later marriage, and marriage in the context of deepening poverty and changing mores may well be a source of stress for all women, whether married early or not. A qualitative case study such as the present inevitably raises more questions than it can answer, but the views of the women interviewed in Goromonzi are considerable food for thought. The causes of early marriage are clearly multiple and complex, and, accordingly, any policy to address this will need to take into account the many factors seen to be operating. There are no easy answers, and simply prohibiting child marriage, while necessary, will not deal with the complex problems of poverty, family disruption, and changing cultural values. It is evident that much more research is necessary before the very tentative conclusions of a small case study can be generalized. 27