“If the money had been there I would have made a choice to get married at 19, but as it is it was the circumstances of just sitting at home forced me to get married earlier.” “I wanted to do my A levels but I realised that it would be a problem for my mother especially after my brother passed away. Since primary school, all my fees were being paid by my brothers. My father used to work but they wanted to make it easier on him. So I thought if I got married maybe my husband would understand and take me to school.” For the Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) respondents, it was clear beyond debate that, in Goromonzi, it was very common for people to get married because they did not have money for school fees. This corroborates with individual responses such as those cited above. Poverty and unemployment were rife in Goromonzi (as suggested by the Afrobarometer data), to the extent that people were trying out any and every option available in order to make ends meet. For young women and girls one such option was transactional sex with international haulage truck drivers. As respondents highlighted “…if a child starts getting into lorries you cannot control her”. Truck drivers and other buyers of transactional sex are viewed as a temporary solution to poverty hence the perception that marriage is a more durable alternative leading to child marriages. Poverty affected respondents’ ability to continue with their formal education. Some of the interviewed child brides bemoaned the fact that they were just stuck at home, unable to complete secondary education or to enroll in any further vocational courses such as cutting and designing. Many were adamant that, if they had had such opportunities, they would not have gotten married. They further pointed out that since they were not doing anything they were being pressured by relatives to get married. This illuminates the nexus between poverty, transactional sex and child marriage. 3.2.2 Family disruptions and ill-treatment by guardians For the majority of respondents, encountering unfortunate circumstances such as the death of parents or divorce forced them to live with guardians such as uncles and aunts. Respondents were unanimous in their view that family disruptions, sudden changes in household composition and household living arrangements created situations of instability in which foster children were ill-treated by guardians. According to respondents, this ill-treatment caused them to misbehave, leading to their engagement in under-age love relationships, which, in turn, led to child marriage, usually when the girl fell pregnant. A major catalyst for the child marriages was the guardians’ eagerness to chase delinquent girls away from home. Of concern was how that delinquency was defined especially by step mothers. Several child brides and elder non-child brides reported that parents arbitrarily defined delinquency. There was a very vague and thin line between behavior that was acceptable and unacceptable. As a result, some guardians chased away girls for merely standing in the street with boys or for just holding hands with boys in public. Once the girl was chased away they had no option but to return to the “responsible” boy or man and get married to him. Step mothers were seen as the most common instigator in chasing girls away from home under this ‘immorality’ justification. 12