'We need more sensitisation on SRHR'

ELIMINATING ignorance on sexual and reproductive health among the young people in Luapula Province is crucial to stamping out early marriages and teenage pregnancy, Chief Kalasa Lukangaba Musungwa na Lesa of the Ushi people of Mansa District has said.

The traditional leader has called for unrelenting comprehensible advocacy on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in his chiefdom to safeguard the lives of teenage girls.

“The biggest challenge that we have regarding adolescent reproductive health is ignorance, especially in far flung areas. Our children lack information on ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy and safer sex in general.”

“There is need to scale up sensitisation programmes on reproductive health so that young people are equipped with knowledge to refrain from risk behaviors,” says Chief Kalasa.

Luapula province approximately has a population of 979,663, of which 457,653 are female and 455,576 are male.

A study conducted by a University of Zambia (UNZA) Public Health scholar, Albertina Moraes titled: Adverse Obstetric outcomes in adolescent pregnancy in rural Zambia: The case of Mansa and Kawambwa Districts revealed some glaring statistics about the extent of early marriages and teenage pregnancy in the region.

The research brought to the fore the adolescent birth rate which stood at 461.9 per 1000 deliveries to mothers aged between 10 and 24 years, higher than the national average at the time of the study.

It was also discovered that 69 per cent of the adolescent mothers, were in their first pregnancy with the youngest being 11 years old at the time of delivery.

Furthermore, a UNDP report of 2013 attributes the high prevalence of adolescent births in Luapula to high poverty and lower educational levels, with 64 percent of the population living in abject poverty, 83 percent literacy rates among 15-24 year-olds and a ratio of 0.74 girls to boys in secondary education.

Besides contributing to high maternal mortality rate, child marriages and pregnancies have hampered the education progression of a girl child in Zambia which has in turn negatively affected women’s participation in decision making positions.

For instance, there are only two female lawmakers Emerine Kabanshi and Given Katuta representing Luapula province in parliament, out of a total of 15 seats.

Chief Kalasa says if the current trend in the region is to be reversed, there is need for a change of mindset on traditional norms that inhibit progress of a girl child.

He has singled out early marriages, where the practice of bride price (the money a groom pays to the bride’s family) plays a role in parents seeking financial gains from marrying off their daughters, as one practice that should be discarded to allow girls attain education without interference.

“We need to value the lives of young people, especially a girl child. Instead of attaching monetary value to girls and treating them like commodities, people should realise that a girl child was also created in the image of God and thus, she deserves respect and protection,” says the Chief.

He stresses the importance of education as a key to economic emancipation success and has vowed to mete out stiff punishment on his subjects that will be found wanting of promoting or marrying off young girls, saying the practice will no longer be condoned in his chiefdom.

The traditional leader explains that his source of inspiration to championing the well-being of girls was drawn from the escalating cases of early marriages in his chiefdom and that he is ready to work closely with various stakeholders to retrieve children from marriage and rooting out the vice in his area.

Generally, the provision of adolescent health services in Zambia is hampered by inadequate funds.

Youth friendly services play a key role in disseminating information on sexual and reproductive health, yet the initiative does not receive budgetary allocations from the Ministry of Health (MOH) despite the activities being included in the action plans and budgets.

Nevertheless, Zambia has taken some measures to abate early marriages through policies such as the youth policy, national strategy on ending child marriage, adolescent health communication strategy, and the reproductive health policy.

Chief Kalasa’s call for the elimination of ignorance in his area is an act of a true champion for change, who is eager to transform the attitudes of people towards a girl child; hence this presents an opportunity for collaborations with other stakeholders.

Zambia is ranked 16th in the world on child marriage with 42 percent of young people married by the age of 18, therefore, partnerships between the Government, cooperating partners, traditional leaders, civil society organisations, youth activists, and the media are crucial in fostering change.

In addition, Government should prioritise adolescent health activities in the allocation of funds to tackle the social ills of child marriages and early pregnancies.

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