Pregnancies knock girls out of school

A NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisation is concerned about teenage pregnancies among school going children under its sponsorship.

Response Network is operating in four districts of Southern Province.

Assistant sponsorship programmes officer Elizabeth Maimbolwa said at one point, the organisation recorded about 36 cases of teenage pregnancies from the girls under its sponsorship.

Ms Maimbolwa said the number only reduced to two cases last year after the organisation trimmed the number of beneficiaries from the initial 932.

She told journalists during the organisation’s breakfast in Livingstone on Wednesday that teenage pregnancies remained a challenge in many communities.

“So far, from grade one to 12, those doing skills training and those in tertiary education, Response Network is sponsoring 600 beneficiaries in Livingstone, Kazungula, Zimba and Kalomo,” she said.

“One of the challenges we had was teenage pregnancies. At some point when we started we had about 36 girls who fell pregnant while in school under this education sponsorship,” Ms Maimbolwa said.

The organisation’s target was the girl-child.

After noticing the problem, Response Network stopped sponsoring such girls to allow those who needed the education.

“And this year, we only had two girls who fell pregnant. So teenage pregnancies is a challenge,” Ms Maimbolwa said.

Response Network executive director Mutukwa Matengenya said the organisation was spending K2.2 million each year to sponsor 600 girls with education.

Mr Matengenya said out of that amount, K540, 000 was being spent on those in tertiary education.

He said his organisation, which is based in Livingstone, was founded upon the realisation that for development to be sustainable, it had to start with the people in the communities without hand-outs.

RN started its operations in 2005 supported by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), but the simple self-help method was soon considered a success as several hundred self-help initiatives started in the targeted villages in the respective districts.

The organisation is now involved in a village self-help programme, sponsorship programme, school building programme, women in governance, sports programme and hope programme.