Govt to repossess play parks
Published On May 6, 2015 » 1977 Views» By Davies M.M Chanda » HOME SLIDE SHOW, SHOWCASE
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By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
THE Ministry of Gender and Child Development is appealing to  President Edgar Lungu, for authority to repossess and revamp all play parks in the country.
Gender and Child Development Minister, Nkandu Luo, said yesterday that her ministry was appealing to President Lungu for permission to repossess all play parks and revamp them so that children could fully utilise them again.
“Children need to be preoccupied so that they can refrain from indulging in activities that will end in teenage pregnancies and early marriages,” Professor Luo said.

• Minister of Youth and Sports Vincent Mwale (left), Gender and Child Development Minister Nkandu Luo  (centre) and World Bank Country director Kundavi Kadiresani arrive for a two-day World Bank-organised workshop on Adolescent Girls’ policy in Zambia.

• Minister of Youth and Sports Vincent Mwale (left), Gender and Child Development Minister Nkandu Luo (centre) and World Bank Country director Kundavi Kadiresani arrive for a two-day World Bank-organised workshop on Adolescent Girls’ policy in Zambia.

Prof Luo was speaking during the Adolescent Girls in Zambia Policy workshop in Lusaka.
She said there was need to integrate the economic growth of Zambia and the communities and to see how best to save girls from teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
Teenage pregnancies and early marriages bred poverty and increased HIV infections.
There was need to encompass issues of adolescents and women in growing the economy because poverty in Zambia mainly affected these groups.
World Bank Country Representative, Kundhavi Kadiresan, said all stakeholders should help in dealing with problems affecting female adolescents in Zambia.
Dr Kadiresan said reducing the numbers of child marriages and teenage pregnancies would contribute to the country’s development.
The World Bank yesterday, during the workshop, released a paper on Challenges and Opportunities of Adolescent girls.
Zambia risked having an increased dependent youth population in the near future if early marriages were not halted.
The report stated that if Zambia did not accelerate the fight against early marriages and teenage pregnancies, the country would have high dependency ratios of the young population and low savings.
The research shows that about 29 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 years old had either given birth or were pregnant.

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