By CHILA NAMAIKO –
FIRST Lady Esther Lungu has pledged to lobby stakeholders to help establish more schools in the remotest parts of the country to increase access to education especially for the girl-child.
She has since urged the victims of early pregnancies and marriages to utilise the introduction of education re-entry policy by Government to continue learningl.

. Lungu

Ms Lungu, who was speaking when she called on Chief Mapanza in Choma on Wednesday, this week, said by creating more schools in rural areas, children would be empowered educationally.
“Let’s address vices that deprive both women and the girl-child. By bringing education closer to them, it will help uplift their lives,” she said.
She was concerned that the girl-child was at a higher risk of being abused through the scourge of early marriages, thereby flattening their right to education.
She observed that scaling up sensitisation mechanisms in remote areas, could hasten efforts to end child marriages.
Chief Mapanza bemoaned the lack of a high-school in his area apart from Saint Marks Secondary, an Anglican Church owned school.
He appealed to Government to establish a high-school to cater for growing number of children to reduce long distances they cover to nearby high-schools.
On health sector, he called for construction of a hospital in the area to address challenges his subjects faced.
He said Macha Mission Hospital and Choma General Hospital were far apart.
Provincial Minister Nathaniel Mubukwanu assured that Government would upgrade feeder roads in the chiefdom.
Ms Lungu, who later addressed scores of women from various clubs, assured them of her proactive role to advocate the improvement of their standard.
She was accompanied by Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini’s wife, Ethel, Defence Minister Richwell Siamunene’s wife, Purity, and Health deputy Minister Chitalu Chilufya’s wife, Mutinta.