We’ll end child marriages – Lungu

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:46:19 +0000

By ANNIE ZULU

ZAMBIA is determined to eradicate child marriages completely because it is a loss to mankind to deny a child education on account of marriage, President Edgar Lungu has said.

President Lungu said children, especially girls, needed protection from anything that hindered their development and education.

The President was speaking at State House yesterday when visiting Swedish Minister of Education Gustav Fridolin paid a courtesy on him.

“You have a partnership in the Presidency through the Ministers (of Education and of Health ) in your quest to impact as much knowledge as possible to our young people so that they make decisions based on facts and focus on education and development of their bodies and intellect before they indulge in marriage,” President Lungu said. He added that Government was working with all stakeholders to ensure that the Swedish efforts to end child marriages in Zambia pay dividends.

President Lungu said it was only through education that a nation could succeed with its development agenda.

And Mr Fridolin said the issue of sexual reproductive health in development could not be overemphasised.

He said Zambia had so far demonstrated that she was a bigger champion in the fight against child marriages and would manage to eradicate it.

“I bring greetings from the Prime Minister of Sweden (Stefan Löfven). Zambia has a long standing good relationship with Sweden in many sectors. We are here for sexuality education in schools so that we can end child marriages,” Mr Fridolin said.

With the President were ministers of Health Chitalu Chilufya, General Education Dennis Wanchinga and Higher Education Nkandu Luo.

Meanwhile, Dr Wanchinga emphasised that it was only when children are aware of sexual reproductive health that a nation can develop.

“It is only when we have adequate number of children in school can we say we are on a path of development. This programme will help reduce the cost of health. It is also an equaliser,” Dr Wanchinga said.