Zimbabwean Girl Uses Martial Arts to Warn Against Child Marriage

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - In Zimbabwe, some girls are forced to marry as young as the age of 10 because of poverty or for traditional or religious reasons.

One Zimbabwean teenager is using the sport of taekwondo to give girls from a poor community a fighting chance to have a better life.Natsiraishe Maritsa has been a fan of taekwondo since she was very young. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art.

Today, the 17-year-old holds taekwondo lessons outside her parents’ home in the poor settlement of Epworth. The area is about 15 kilometers south of the capital, Harare.

“Not many people do taekwondo here, so it’s fascinating for the girls, both married and single,” Maritsa said. “I use it to get their attention.” Children as young as four follow her instructions to stretch, kick, strike and punch. After class, the group talks about the risks of child marriage.

Newly married girls led one recent discussion. One by one, they describe extreme abuse they have experienced in their marriages. They describe being raped and being hungry.

“We are not ready for this thing called marriage. We are just too young for it,” Maritsa told The Associated Press. She described her small group as “a safe space” for the girls to share ideas.

“I use their voices, their challenges, to discourage those young girls not yet married to stay off early sexual activity and marriage,” Maritsa said.

Zimbabwe law says boys and girls cannot legally marry until they reach the age of 18. That law was passed in 2016. Child marriage, however, is widespread in the southern African nation.

For some poor families, the reason is an economic one. Marrying off a young daughter means fewer costs. The rights group Girls Not Bridessays the bride price paid by husbands of these girls is “used by families as a means of survival.”

An estimated 30 percent of girls in Zimbabwe are married before they reach 18,the United Nations Children’s Fund says.Rising poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressures on families around the world to marry off their young daughters.

Maritsa’s group is called Vulnerable Underaged People’s Auditorium. She started the project in 2018 after seeing her friends leave school for marriage. She hopes to increase the confidence of both married and unmarried girls through the martial arts lessons and discussions.

She accepts 15 students in each lesson, she said. “The only support I get is from my parents.” After class, her parents usually provide fresh juice and sweets.

Zimbabwe recently announced a ban on public gatherings. The measure is meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The ban has forced Maritsa to suspend her lessons, but she hopes to restart as soon as the country’s lockdown is lifted.

Maritsa said, “From being hopeless, the young mothers feel empowered...being able to use their stories to dissuade other girls from falling into the same trap.” (VOA)

Cosmetic Surgeries Operations Rise in South Korea During Pandemic

SEOUL, LELEMUKU.COM - South Korean demand for cosmetic surgery operations sharply increased in 2020.

Last year, the industry in South Korea was worth about $10.7 billion dollars. That was an increase of around nine percent from 2019. South Koreans are expected to spend around $11.8 billion this year, says Gangnam Unni, the country’s largest online cosmetic surgery website.

Ryu Han-na is a 20-year-old university student. She got an operation on her nose in December.

Ryu took her classes online throughout 2020. She said the abilities to rest at home and to wear a face covering in public were important for her.

“I always wanted to get a nose job...I thought it would be the best to get it now before people start taking off masks when vaccines become available in 2021,” she said as she prepared for the operation, which cost around $4,000.

“There will be bruises and swelling from the surgery but since we’ll all be wearing masks I think that should help,” she added.

That thinking is leading to an increased demand for such operations in South Korea. Gangnam Unni data showed its users grew to about 2.6 million last year, an increase of 63 percent from a year earlier.

However, the pandemic made it nearly impossible to sell cosmetic services to foreign patients. As a result, the industry has tried to promote its services more to people in the country and nearby.

Promote means to make something more popular or well-known.

Cosmetic surgeons say patients are interested in operations on all parts of the face. Some want operations on parts of the face that are easily hidden under coverings, such as the nose and lips. But others want operations in places that face coverings do not hide.

Park Cheol-woo is a surgeon at WooAhIn Plastic Surgery Clinic. Park was responsible for Ryu’s operation.

“Both surgical and non-surgical inquiries about eyes, eyebrows, nose bridge and foreheads - the only visible parts - certainly increased,” Park said.

Surgeon Shin Sang-ho runs Krismas Plastic Surgery Clinic. Shin said many people have spent their emergency payment from the government at hospitals and surgical centers.

“I felt like it’s sort of a revenge spending. I’ve sensed that customers were expressing their pent-up emotions (from the coronavirus) by getting cosmetic procedures,” Shin said.

Pent-up emotions are feelings that have been held back or not expressed.

Government data shows that of about $13 billion in government payments, 10.6 percent was used in hospitals and drug stores. That was the third-largest area of spending behind supermarkets and restaurants. However, details of spending at hospitals were not provided.

A third wave of coronavirus remains a concern in South Korea as the country reports more daily cases. “We’ve seen growing numbers of cancellations...recently as people refrain more from going outside...” Park said. (VOA)

Japan Researchers Aims to Launch World’s First Wooden Satellite, LignoSat

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Japanese researchers say they are working to build the world’s first satellite made of wood.

The goal is to help fight the problem of space junk. Space junk includes things like dead satellites, lost pieces of equipment and small pieces of paint. Such objects can present threats to spacecraft and satellites operating in space.

The project is a joint effort involving the company Sumitomo Forestry and Japan’s Kyoto University. The development team recently announced plans for the satellite in a news release.

The researchers say the wooden satellite – which they call LignoSat – is one of several planned projects that seek to explore how wood might be used in space in the future.

The developers say wood offers several advantages over other materials commonly used to build satellites, such as aluminum and other metals.

For example, the researchers say wood does not block electromagnetic waves. For this reason, wooden structures could be used to house antenna equipment and other controlling devices, the team said in a statement.

Wooden structures would also be simpler to design and weigh less than current satellite equipment, the researchers added. Such satellites would be better for the environment because they would burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere. They would not release polluting particles into the air and oceans.

Space junk: a growing problem

The researchers say space junk is a growing problem. Thousands of non-operating satellites are currently orbiting the Earth, and the number of new satellites continues to grow. Last year, European and United Nations agencies announced they were developing a plan for worldwide action to deal with space junk. The agencies said waste orbiting the earth must be cleaned up to make room for new satellites.

One of the leaders of the project is Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, who is also a professor at Kyoto University. He told BBC News that the driving force behind the project is the need to limit pollutants released from satellites that remain in the upper atmosphere for many years.

"Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth," Doi said. He added that after the first steps in the research process are completed, the team will begin “developing the engineering model of the satellite.” After that, a satellite flight model will be manufactured.

The first wooden satellite could be launched by 2023.

The researchers admit that the project presents some big technological problems. These include finding a wood material that can keep its shape in severe temperatures and survive intense sunlight over a long period of time.

The Japanese project involves researching different wood-based materials and protective coatings that can hold up in the extreme conditions of space. The team is studying the construction of wooden structures using cedar and birch wood.

The researchers also plan to study how other wood products would perform in space. They want to find out whether trees could help humans in extreme environments such as space stations.

The company backing the project, Sumitomo Forestry, has also developed buildings made mainly of wood. In 2018, the company announced its largest project, a 350-meter wooden skyscraper to be built in Tokyo. It says the goal is to complete the building by 2041. (VOA)