A 17-year-old girl from Zimbabwe is using martial arts to combat child marriage by teaching self-defense to young women.

Now that’s what heroes do!

Natsiraishe Maritsa founded the Vulnerable Underaged People’s Auditorium initiative and in that program, they use martial arts, such as Taekwondo to fight child marriage.

#Leaders
With cases of #childmarriages in her community increasing, 16-year-old #Zimbabwean #NatsiraisheMaritsa is using taekwondo to raise awareness about the scourge of teen pregnancies. https://t.co/AdgjeCUwTV pic.twitter.com/FRYTp6HMzP@Scalvation @Gr8Victor @hesphina @XHnews1

— Murusaka (@murusaka) November 12, 2020

The initiative is taking place in her small community, which is located in Harare, just near the capital of Zimbabwe.

Maritsa started to practice Taekwondo since she was just 5 years old and she used her talents to help other women in her community.

Since 2016, she utilized her love of the uncommon sport in the country to help women that are at risk or have been affected by child marriage.

Maritsa teaches the art to 15 women and girl.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, this girl had to stop and she is currently hoping that things get better so she could help women and girls learn the martial art.

Young children and other women or girls come to the classes.

Maritsa also pointed out that some of them bring their infants while they attend the taekwondo classes in the backyard of her parents.

During the classes, women also discus how they are abused in their houses.

Maritsa was interviewed by the Associated Press, where they said:

The role of teen mothers is usually ignored when people campaign against child marriages. Here, I use their voices, their challenges, to discourage those young girls not yet married to stay off early sexual activity and marriage.

Child marriage is banned in the country, which means you have to be at least 18 to get married, however, the practice still exist.

Around 34 percent of the girls are married in the carried before they turn 18 and 5 percent of the girls are married before they even turn 15 years old.