Focuses on gender related issues to do with men, women and children. It highlights number of issues that affect mostly women and children in their day to day lives and also targets policy makers to help in alleviating the challenges Zambian women and children go through.
Wednesday 24 September 2014
We need female teachers – Kandesha school head
KANDESHA Primary School acting headteacher Emmanuel Kana has implored Government to deploy female teachers to the school to help handle and mould the schoolgirls there.
The school has never had a female teacher since it was taken over by Government five years ago.
In an interview, Mr Kana said early marriages were rife because the girls have no female teachers to inspire them to complete their education.
He said the trend had led to most of them thinking that only men can be teachers as they have never seen a female teacher before owing to the area being rural.
“Whenever we have sports day, we normally camp in some area and that poses a danger to our schoolgirls as they have no one to take care of them and they remain vulnerable to both the male teachers and fellow schoolboys,” he lamented.
Mr Kana lamented that when schoolgirls become of age whilst at school, male teachers do not know how to handle the cases owing to how sacred menstruation is regarded in society.
He said the locals are highly superstitious which makes it impossible for male teachers to help the schoolgirls once they mess themselves up during menstruation.
“If only we had a female teacher, she can be able to handle such issues as she can understand them better. Last time we had a situation where a girl messed up and she was laughed at by her peers. If we had a female teacher she could have handled the case better,” he said.
Mr Kana said he has since reported the matter to the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) John Kaira.
When contacted for a comment, John Kaira said he is aware of the situation and will soon liaise with the provincial education officer to see how best the situation can be dealt with.
Mr Kaira said it’s important for schools to have female teachers who the girls can look up to and get inspiration.
“Female teachers act as confidants to our girls and so we will look into the issue seriously,” he said.
The school is located 13 kilometres away from the central business district of Mumbwa in Central Province.
Lack of sanitary provisions hurdle to girls’ education’
Wednesday 10 September 2014
Child death, maternal health challenges
AS THE world prepares for the attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Zambia too is striving for the same.
Despite the strides Zambia is making, little seems to have been achieved especially in the area of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health.
The setbacks experienced in reducing child mortality rates and improving maternal health by two-thirds by 2015 range from social to economic. These setbacks vary from region to region, depending on social and cultural differences.
However, in North-Western Province, the fight against maternal and child deaths hinge greatly on cultural norms; this is because the habitants are widely known for being cultural.
That is why the culture of silence of keeping one’s pregnancy secret until asked by elderly women to share with the community is religiously observed despite its adverse effects.
Since time immemorial, pregnant women and girls upon knowing they were expecting were not allowed to share the knowledge of their pregnancy with anyone until after a period of three months. Unfortunately this practise has continued in certain parts of North-Western Province and is reportedly hindering the fight against maternal and child mortality deaths.
Acting maternal and child health co-ordinator at Solwezi District Community Office Sarah Tembo indicated that culture is a affecting the fight against high maternal deaths in the area.
Ms Tembo, pregnant women and girls do not seek maternal and child health services on time because they wait until they are permitted by the older women to do so, is normally after three months or more of pregnancy.
She was speaking during the stakeholder’s sensitisation and orientation meeting for Kasempa, Kitwe, Mwinilunga and Solwezi districts recently.
The meeting was aimed at increasing access to maternal and child health services in Zambia organised by PANOS Institute Southern Africa (PSAF) and supported by Save the Children International in line with the MDGs four and five.
MDGs four and five aim at reducing mortality rates by two-thirds, reducing the maternal mortality rate to three quarters and ensuring universal access to reproductive health.
Ms Tembo highlighted that the most important time for a pregnant woman to receive proper antenatal care was during the first trimester because that is when they are given anti-malaria prevention.
She further highlighted that some pregnant wait for as long as seven months hence missing out on the full preventive pregnancy care. Globally, more than 350,000 women die of preventable child birth complications.
In Zambia, 76 out of 1,000 infants die within a year of being born, while 119 out of 1,000 children die between the ages of one-five.
And 591 out of 1,000 children die within a specified period of giving birth due to pregnancy-related complications or child births; these rates are higher in rural areas.
But Zambia National Traditional Counsellors President Iress Phiri explained that traditionally when a woman realises she is pregnant, she is not allowed to tell anyone except her husband.
Further, she has to keep the pregnancy secret for some months until she is asked by an elderly grandmother to share the news with friends and relatives. “All this was purely done to prevent any miscarriages because not everyone is happy to hear that someone else is pregnant,” Ms Phiri said.
And addressing participants who attended the three-day workshop aimed at empowering community groups and local radio stations with knowledge on increasing access to maternal health services in Solwezi, PSAF programme manager Elias Banda reaffirmed the institute’s commitment to work with communities.
Mr Banda said PSAF has started a two-year advocacy campaign in Western and North-Western provinces aimed at increasing demand and access of maternal and child health services in rural Zambia.
He said “the project is aimed at helping Zambia attain the MDGs and will directly reach 24,000 women, 23,000 men, 6,000 boys and 11,000 girls in Mongu, Lukulu, Solwezi, Mwinilunga, Kasempa, Lusaka and Kitwe districts.”
Among the many activities planned by PSAF is the mobilisation of Safe Motherhood Action Group (SMAGS) and Radio Listening Clubs (RLC) among the rural communities to increase awareness on the importance of pregnant mothers and under-five children visiting health centres.
However, this practice has been described as ‘harmful’ by Mufumbwe’s Kanunga SMAG member Amon Muzenze.
Mr Muzenze said in an interview that the cultural practice is mostly observed in rural areas making the work of SMAGs difficult.
He narrated that young girls end up dying while at school because they are culturally-socialised not to share the news of pregnancy with anyone.
“There are situations where a young girl has to wait for the grandmother to instruct her when to go to the hospital for antenatal examination; which often times contributes to rising cases of obstetric fistula,” Mr Muzenze said.
And Kasempa Radio station manager Martha M’soka challenged the media to take the key role in addressing cultural barriers that have posed as a challenge in the fight against maternal and child mortality deaths.
Ms M’soka said local radio stations are key in the fight as they address the challenges the locals can identify themselves with.
Kanengo should become boarding school’
Over 500,000 children out of school – ZANEC
OVER 500,000 children are currently out of school in Zambia of which 242,616 are boys and 261,094 are girls, Zambia National Education Coalition executive director Grace Manyonga (ZANEC) has said.
And ZANEC has developed an advocacy strategy to get back to school the out-of -school children which will begin in selected districts of Eastern, Luapula and Southern provinces.
Ms Manyonga attributed high levels of children out of school to increased levels of pregnancies, early marriages, and distances to school, affordability and illiteracy among parents.
Speaking in an interview, she said the glaring situation will result in direct failure by Zambia to attain the Education for All (EFA) goals and Millennium Development Goals of 2015 if access to basic education for vulnerable and marginalised children is not improved.
“There are 435,430 out of school children of primary school age 7-13 years of which 219,522 are boys while 215,918 are girls. There are a total of 69,190 at junior secondary level aged 14-15 years of which 23,094 are boys and 46,076 are girls,” she said.
On the advocacy strategy, Ms Manyonga will partner with the ministries of Education and Chiefs and Traditional Affairs to supplement their efforts on the national wide campaign to curb early marriages as it is one of the factors contributing to children dropping out of school.
She added “the objectives of the campaign are to reduce the number of out of school children at primary school level. To advocate for increased enrolment for of out of school children at primary school level by 2015.”
And Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWEZA) executive director Agnes Shipanuka added that lack of support towards management of maturation to girls dropping out of school.
Ms Shipanuka urged Government to emulate the Kenyan government where they include the purchasing of sanitary towels in their national budget.
She said without access to menstrual supplies and sanitation, girls educational opportunities are marginalised.
“A girl who is absent from school for four days in 28 days loses 13 learning days equivalent to two weeks of learning in every school term. In an academic year (nine months) a girl loses 39 learning days equivalent to six weeks of learning time,” she said.
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