By BRIAN HATYOKA –
THE Forum for Africa Women Educationalists of Zambia (FAWEZA) in partnership with the Norwegian Church Agency has managed to take back to school 10 out of 23 girls who dropped out to give birth last year in Kalomo of Southern Province.
FEWEZA, through its Community Action Groups (CAGS) working in three villages, is currently supporting five families of the affected girls.
Mubanga Basic School head teacher Wamulume Libongani said he was happy the trend of girls dropping out school due to pregnancy had reduced following the interventions by FAWEZA.
Mr Libongani said the school, which currently has 945 pupils, used to have a high rate of pregnancies among girls before FAWEZA moved in with initiatives that had seen the trend drop.
He was speaking at Mubanga Basic School on Monday when a delegation from FAWEZA officers visited the area.
“In 2017 alone, we had a combined number of 23 girls who dropped out of school after they were impregnated. With the coming of FAWEZA’s CAGS programme, we have managed to bring back to school 10 girls from five families,” he said.
Mr Libongani also said the programme had also managed to bring back to school two boys who had left school for social and economic factors.
He said his school together, with the community action groups worked closely with the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) to identify the affected girls.
Mr Libongani said, so far this year, only one pupil had dropped out due to pregnancy, an indication that such cases were getting fewer.
“If we have three cases of pregnancies the whole year, this will be a great achievement to the school compared to the past years,” he said.
FAWEZA senior programmes officer Faith Simukoko-Minja said her organisation in partnership with the Norwegian Church Agency was implementing a pilot project to mitigate cases of teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
Ms Minja said Mubanga Basic School was selected alongside four other schools namely mainly because they had high rates of teen pregnancies in the Province.
She said Southern Province was second only to Eastern Province in terms of girl pregnancies and child marriages.
“We have a pilot project in five schools of Kalomo known as ‘Changing one family at a time’ because we believe that education is key. We are encouraging girls to focus on their education so that they empower themselves in future,” she said.
Senior Headman Muyuni, who is in charge of 27 villages in the area, commended FAWEZA for supporting girls in the area.